Published: June 24, 2007 12:00 am            

Paula Lee Dilbeck

Paula Lee Dilbeck, 55, of Norman died peacefully at her home Friday, June 22, after a long and trying illness. Services will be 10 a.m. Friday at Havenbrook Funeral Home. Havenbrook Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Mrs. Dilbeck was born Dec. 27, 1951, in New Albany, Ind., to Richard Wheeler and his wife Alice. She was the first of four children and was reared in Carmel, Ind. She graduated from Carmel High School in 1969. A Quaker, she interrupted her college career to teach English to Palestinian students at the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank near Jericho and Jerusalem with her husband Max Carter. Returning to the U.S., she continued her education, graduated from Ball State University.

Single again, she moved to Denver, Colo., in 1978, where she taught at a Catholic school. She married Craig Young there. The couple had two daughters, Katherine Alice and Lois Charlotte. The family moved to Norman in 1981. She worked as a substitute teacher and as an admissions officer at the University of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Dilbeck made a third marriage in 1987 to Marion Dilbeck of Norman. Sept. 26 would have been their 20th anniversary. Mrs. Dilbeck's lifelong involvement in education led to her work in positions with the Oklahoma State Department of Education and to her completion of a master's degree in journalism in 2003, just as her health failed.

She was a member of AA and Al-Anon, celebrating 21 years of sobriety this year. Mrs. Dilbeck was a friend who gave social witness through involvement in peace activism and gay rights activism, her family said. She cared about her fellow beings, about animals and about the issues of her times. She bore her burden without complaint. Her caregiver Brenda Cox was a special blessing.

Mrs. Dilbeck is survived by husband Marion Dilbeck of the home; daughters Katherine Chavez and Charlotte Young of Oklahoma City; granddaughters Chloe and Celeste Chavez; father Richard Wheeler and wife Peggy of Whitestown, Ind.; mother Alice Gillaspie and sister Helen Wheeler of Carmel; brother Ted Wheeler and wife Lori and children Forrest and Olivia of Los Alamitos, Calif.; brother Jim Wheeler and wife Sandy and children Brooks, Meredith and Luke of Portage, Ind.; and an extended family of relations and friends whom she loved.

Online condolences may be posted at www.havenbrookfuneralhome.com/Obituaries.htm.