Friend, wife, big sister, daughter, and pet mom, Deborah Karen (Lilker) Fellows, 67, passed away June 1, 2024 in Butte, Montana due to complications from ovarian cancer. For many years, she lived life well with her husband, family, and many friends in cancer remission.
Debbie was born on June 11, 1956 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents William Murray Lilker of Ukrainian heritage (Russian Empire “Pale of Settlement”) and Elena A. Lilker (nee Reinsch) of German heritage—a Berlin Holocaust survivor via 1938 Kindertransport to England. Debbie was the oldest of William and Elena’s three children. Her family moved to Palo Alto, California in 1962 where Debbie spent her formative years. Debbie’s mother was a high school language teacher in Philadelphia and in Palo Alto. Her father was an electro-chemist, working for the Philadelphia Mint and later at IBM in San Jose in the start-up years of “Silicon Valley.” Debbie graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto in 1974. After graduation, she attended community college and volunteered on the Kfar HaMaccabi kibbutz in Israel (where Uncle Shelly and Aunt Soshana Lilker lived). After returning to the states, Debbie went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology in 1977 from Sonoma State University.
Her adventurous side next led Debbie to decades living and working in our national parks. Yosemite National Park was first (1977) followed by Yellowstone National Park (c. 1980) where she worked summers and at least one winter snowed in at Old Faithful. Seasonal work was followed by full time positions with the Park’s hotel/restaurant concessioner (TWRS/Xanterra) for many years.
In Yellowstone, Debbie met her husband-to-be, Rick (Richard James Fellows). They were introduced in 1982 downstairs in Gardiner’s Two Bit Saloon. Rick thought she was the coolest person he’d ever met. Four years later, on June 6, 1986, Debbie and Rick married in Livingston, Montana at the Park County Courthouse.
Debbie’s employment in the Park evolved professionally with Yellowstone’s concessioner while Rick bartended and cooked in Gardiner establishments. The two set down roots in Gardiner. Debbie had a great personality to deal with the public. She was positive, upbeat, and she was a keen administrator. She spent years as the Special Reservations Coordinator for Yellowstone’s concessioner and later as an Information Specialist with Yellowstone’s non-profit partner (Yellowstone Association/Yellowstone Forever).
Debbie was kind, thoughtful, intelligent, talkative, inordinately funny, and quick witted. She interpreted and remembered her life’s unique and mundane experiences (with employers, pets, friends, strangers) and retold them with color, irony, and quick rhythm, demonstrating just how much she let life tickle her. She had a fun way of interacting with most everyone. She also took her health seriously, staying physically fit and eating primarily vegetarian (though she did occasionally bless Rick’s bacon as kosher saying it was actually “penguin”). In addition to decades of Yellowstone hikes, Debbie walked to work, walked to the store, walked all over Gardiner with her dogs, and walked quite fast on the Gardiner High School track training for races and half-marathons, which she walked really, really fast. Honoring her mother, she participated in The Race for the Cure in Helena for many years.
This California girl gravitated toward books and what she referred to as “cultcha.” Debbie was an avid reader and she was her tribe’s “Julie the Cruise Director.” Debbie sought travel and event tickets for herself, Rick, and her clutch of friends. There was an outdoor music festival on tap nearly every summer (Telluride, Grand Targhee, Montana Folk Festival, Red Ants Pants, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass). Debbie volunteered at most of these. Smiling with tickets in hand, Debbie and company would board flights to Las Vegas for “Hamilton” or “The Book of Mormon” at the Smith Center, modern art installations, Cirque du Soleil performances, the Neon Boneyard, rock-n-roll shows, and the Vegas Golden Knights.
As a child of the 1960s, as a Jew, and as a Democrat, Debbie followed politics, participated in her community, and considered voting a responsibility, not just a right. She was always up on current events and politics. “Your Body, Your Choice” was never far from her lips. She prioritized travel to protests and carried bold signs, including to the first Montana Women’s March (Helena, January 2017); and to tell the 45th President just what she thought of him at a 2018 Billings rally.
All in all, Debbie was a 30+ year resident of Gardiner (sandwiching a few years in Vancouver, Washington and Fort Collins, Colorado). As Debbie and Rick neared retirement, and with unexpected employer issues (Two Bit Saloon fire and Yellowstone Forever’s struggles), Debbie and Rick sold their place in Gardiner on 5th Street (AKA: Dog Shit Alley) in the summer of 2021. Their first stop was Silver City, New Mexico, but they opted to settle in Butte, Montana later that year in the antique, bungalow-style home they owned uptown near Montana Tech. In cancer remission, Debbie was back out walking the city trails: to her seasonal barista job on campus, with Clementine past Butte’s mining head frames, back home to eat dinner with Rick and settle in with her latest book.
Without you Debbie, our lives are much quieter and less jovial.
Debbie is survived by Rick, her husband of 38 years; two brothers, David Lilker (BarbaraLee Schimmel) of Willits, California, and Steve Lilker of Las Cruces, New Mexico; her border collie, Clementine; and her friends who miss her terribly. She was preceded in death by her parents, step mother Miriam Lilker, and many, well-loved dogs and cats.
Join friends and family for Debbie’s Celebration of Life at the Gardiner Community Center on Sunday, October 6 at 12 noon. To honor Debbie, you may wish to make a donation in her name to your local animal shelter, public library, the Anti-Defamation League (www.adl.org), or your local political candidate, and VOTE!
Please visit below to offer the family a condolence or to share a memory of Debbie.
Axelson Funeral and Cremation Services is privileged to care for Debbie and her family.
Service Schedule
Celebration of Life
12:00 p.m.
Sunday October 6, 2024
Gardiner Community Center
208 W Main St W
Gardiner, Montana 59030
Service Schedule
Celebration of Life
12:00 p.m.
Sunday October 6, 2024
Gardiner Community Center
208 W Main St W
Gardiner, Montana 59030
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Joe & Cathy Peterson (across the street) says
Thoughts and prayers to you Rick and Family
Martha Downing says
Rick! So sorry to hear this. I got to chat a bit with Deb a couple years ago at the coffee place near the interstate. God bless her, and you too.
Bev Hardesty says
Dear Rick and family, the extended ex-YACC family is heartbroken over Deb’s passing. Deb sent me birthday cards every year, even though we rarely saw each other after I moved away from the west. We were dorm supervisors for TWA/Yellowstone, and shared many hilarious adventures! Deb and I would often watch beautiful thunderstorms roll through Mammoth on summer afternoons. The storms were often accompanied by a rainbow afterwards. We will all miss Deb’s sparkly personality, intelligence and quick wit.
With love, Bev
Lorraine Rowe-Conlan says
Rick and Family, Debbie’s Family,
The loss of Debbie is heartbreaking. She was just the best. I miss her so much.
Cristin Dhieux-Fowle says
What a beautiful obituary. So suiting to our lovely Debbie. She was a spark! An animal lover and victor of humankind. She will be missed by so many. Love and hugs to all who were touched by such a beautiful and kind soul.
Rose cashio says
What a wonderful person she was.im so sorry for your loss Rick. at you find easy in the stories and memories you two made.