Monday, Sept. 13, 1999 | 11:43 a.m.
Donnie Lee Bolden Sr., a native Southern Nevadan and the father of the only student shot to death on a school day at a Clark County school, has died. He was 50.
Bolden died Aug. 30 -- four days after the ninth anniversary of the slaying of his 16-year-old son, Donnie Lee Bolden Jr., at Eldorado High School.
Bolden, a Marine Corps veteran, was buried following a graveside ceremony Friday at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City. Harrison-Ross Mortuary handled the arrangements.
The younger Bolden died after being shot in the neck in the crowded Eldorado cafeteria on Aug. 26, 1990, just minutes before the first bell rang on the first day of school. He was entering his junior year.
"Now I've lost both my Donnies -- and both at the same time of the year," said Lillie Bolden, wife of Donnie Sr. and mother of Donnie Jr. "Lord knows the 1990s have been tough on my family."
Lillie, a Las Vegas resident for 42 years, and Donnie Sr. were childhood sweethearts. They met when she was 12 and he was 13. They dated in high school -- she attending Rancho, he a student at Clark.
"Donnie (Sr.) was very smart in school -- he thought he'd be a professor one day," said the former Lillie Flanagan, who married Donnie after he completed Marine Corps basic training in 1972.
Two years later they had Donnie Jr., whose slaying would have a profound effect on the remainder of Donnie Sr.'s life.
"It just broke his heart," Lillie said. "He never talked much about it because he was a quiet man. But he was just as devastated as I was."
Since the slaying Lillie has crusaded against school violence, giving several news media interviews over the years to assure that Southern Nevadans will not forget what happened to her son and what can happen to other children when guns are brought to school.
Curtis Collins, a sophomore who had several altercations with Donnie Jr. leading up to the shooting, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He is serving a life sentence in the Nevada State Prison. He becomes eligible for parole next year.
Bolden Sr. was born June 19, 1949, in Henderson to Earl Wickerson and Rosie Lee Bolden. The family moved to Las Vegas when Donnie was young.
After graduating from Clark, Bolden entered the Marine Corps and served as a payroll clerk in Okinawa. He left the military in 1975 and later that year was seriously injured in a head-on collision in Yuma, Ariz. It resulted in him spending years on disability income.
Bolden later acquired a Clark County Health District card and worked occasionally in the culinary industry. He worked for a while at the old Hacienda hotel-casino, Lillie said.
In addition to his wife and mother, both of Las Vegas, Bolden is survived by a daughter, Lashonda Kelley of Las Vegas; a sister, Linda Bolden of Las Vegas; and five brothers, Lennis Bolden of San Diego, and Roy Bolden, Eddie Ray Bolden, Nathel Bolden and Rudy Bolden, all of Las Vegas.
He was preceded in death by a brother, Lannie Bolden.
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