Just got an envelope of newspaper articles from home and found one piece of very sad news. Below is the obituary, run in the local paper (The Desert Sun) on April 1st.

After a full career as a teacher and counselor in one of the outer LA suburbs, she came to the Desert and became a leader in things like Gifted and Talented Education, Career Prep and various parts of the curriculum. She was a tiny woman, definitely under five feet tall, with a heart of gold and able to hold her own in front of a classroom, even at 75 (when I graduated from high school).

The fact that she has died is not a big surprise--she lived an extremely full and long life--it's just a pity that the Earth lost someone so exceptional.

The Desert Sun
April 1, 2005 (Palm Springs, California)
Lives Remembered

Julie Hilla

Julie Hilla, 82, of Ashland, Oregon and formerly of Palm Desert, Died February 23, 2005, in Medford, Oregon.

She was born in 1922 to Albert and Jeanne Schoensieqel in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

She married Harold Abshear in 1943 in San Bernadino and later became an educator for the Whittier High School District. After retiring from that position, she moved to Palm Desert and became an active volunteer in local Coachella Valley schools.

She was active in the Unitarian Fellowship, the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert and the Democratic Party.

She is survived by her husband, John Hilla of Ashland; her daughter Joan Brown of Ashland; two sons, Donald Abshear of Grand Junction, CO and Robert Abshear of Ashland; her brother, Richard Schoensieqel of Del Mar; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Arrangements were under the direction of Litwiller Simonsen Funeral Home in Ashland.