I have many happy and fun memories of Deb. She loved life and loved pranks. My favorite prank was when she “kidnapped” a cardboard cut-out of Coco (from Coco Puffs) from Mary’s office (Assistant Facilities Manager at CPN). Deb took Coco to locations all over Lincoln taking random pictures including one with random kids. She even took one of him at Evonne’s house on Thanksgiving at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Deb would type ransom notes, place a picture of Coco with the notes inside an envelope and using enlisted help (me and my staff), we would put the notes under various custodial closet doors. The custodians all loved taking the envelopes to Mary who made a scrapbook of all the notes and pictures. Mary would bring this scrapbook to our team meetings and Deb was quite convincing that she was not the kidnapper. At one point Deb realized she had Coco under her bed and was worried Mary would find it there when they were doing maintenance work in her apartment. So Deb waited until the middle of the night and snuck Coco out of her apartment and into the trunk of her car.

One year for Mary’s birthday Deb hung a baggie of dirt beneath a sign that said “Mary is older than” with an arrow pointing down toward the dirt. This was prominently displayed at the dining services entrance for all to see. She always made signs for my birthday and had them in my office when I got to work to make my day brighter.

Deb also enjoyed scaring Collins Irving (who, quite frankly, wasn’t real difficult to scare [sorry Collins]). I recall one time we were in the basement of Neihardt and saw Collins round the corner by the Snack Bar with a trash cart. He made the mistake of leaving the trash room doors wide open. Deb and I stood just inside the door and waited for him. When he came around the corner into the trash room we quietly said “boo” together and Collins about jumped out of his skin. Deb just laughed and laughed.

I had the pleasure of taking one of Deb’s English classes here at UNL. There was a young man in the class who was consistently disruptive during class. One day Deb asked him to come out into the hallway during class so she could have a chat with him about his behavior. This young man was 6’7” tall so when they got out into the hallway, “Little Debbie,” as I called her, had him sit down so she could stand up and talk to him at eye level. We giggled about that one after the fact.

We always referred to ourselves as sisters and I would tease her that I was Evonna Momma’s favorite. While that would get her dander up, she would laugh about it too. In reflection I would say Deb’s laugh and smile are what I will remember the most. Primarily because we laughed frequently and she was always generous with her smiles. Love you sister and I’ll see you again someday. Until then, no pranks on the Big Guy upstairs!