Leah Ann Dunbar's Obituary
Leah Ann Strubhar Dunbar Leah Ann Strubhar Dunbar, 78, formerly of Texarkana, Texas, passed away July 26, 2010 in the Clarehouse hospice house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was born on December 3, 1931 in Peoria, Ill. In 1935 the family moved to Wadsworth, Ohio living there until their move to Texarkana in the spring of 1942. Her dad, Lyle Strubhar was a supervisor in the ammo plant during the war, a poultry farmer and a school bus driver among other things. Her mom, Verna was a school teacher at the Liberty school located at the edge of their property. This is where Leah met many of her lifelong friends. Leah the person, cared for the welfare of the common man. She respected all life styles, peoples and cultures. She lived an extremely modest life style with no excesses or luxuries. Her philosophy on life was probably influenced by the fact that she grew up during the Depression years and the days of World War, when times were not easy for her fellow man and the basics of life were hard to come by. Leah was very popular in school, and still calls many of her classmates from that time as some of her best friends. She graduated from Texas High School in 1949. In the class years of 1950 and 1951 she attended Texarkana Junior College. While there she was the editor of the Bulldog yearbook, sophomore favorite, member of the student council, Phi Theta Kappa and other campus groups. Her 1952 class year was attended at the now North Texas State. She met Clarence Dunbar in 1950 as she was walking down the road when he stopped to give her ride to her destination at the time. They married on Sept 27, 1952. She continued her education at Tulsa University obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in sociology in 1956 after moving to Bartlesville, Ok where Clarence also attended TU. While at TU one of her jobs was to drive the Bookmobile around. It ensured people could get to the library for the books that they needed. They raised a son, Stephen and a daughter Jane. She held the office of President of the League of Women's Voters in the state of OK in 1964. Her strong interest of politics continued as she followed all the major elections, working as a volunteer in many of the elections. She was instrumental in helping with the indictment of all corrupt county commissioners in Oklahoma during those scandals of the 1960's. Even after she could no longer work the elections, she still kept up with the political agendas right up until her death. She was a state social worker for Oklahoma until 1972. Leah and Clarence divorced in 1973 after the kids were off to college. Their differences in life goals eventually caused the split. Leah then continued on with the social work that she loved. She later earned her master's degree of sociology in 1986 at the University of Texas at Arlington during one of her work stays in the Dallas area. She was always known as an 'A' student throughout all school years. She held jobs in Oklahoma City in the 1970's, Dallas and Texarkana in the 1980's and 90's. While living in Texas she moved back and forth twice between Dallas and Texarkana as the jobs required. She worked as a social worker in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, retiring in 2000. She also worked as an omnibus man for patient's rights at nursing facilities in Texas and a hospice social worker during that time. Leah was a licensed social worker in all 3 states. During her time in Bartlesville, she and a team were instrumental in starting a community housing project to help repair housing for needy folks. This project went on to become a program that still exists today. She went to India in 1977 for a year, working with a group from Oklahoma City, whose mission was to aid people in all areas of the world. In the preparation years prior to this trip she discovered a benign tumor that was removed. Her work also took her to Washington, DC where she worked on an inner city housing project for needy folks. She worked as a secretary for Fanny Mae during her stay there until 1980. She then returned to Texas to care for her folks. Her folks were moved from the east Texas farm in 1980 to Dallas where they were cared for by Mack and Leah. Later when her dad passed away from Parkinson's in 1983 Leah moved her mom back to Texarkana as her work took her back there a couple times. Her mom passed away in 1991. Leah eventually moved back to Hurst, Texas in the Dallas area. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1999. After retiring in 2000, she moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to be near her son and daughter. Around her apartment, there was a host of cats. One of the cats either adopted Leah, or she adopted the cat, don't know which. She named this female cat, Kiki. She still didn't know what purpose cats performed, but she enjoyed them, none the less. Soon thereafter she developed degenerative eye disease and had to give up her drivers license in 2004. During her life in Tulsa she never lived more than a couple miles from her son where she frequented weekly up until her last couple years when she become quite confined to more active nursing care. Her local Tulsa friends, some from the earlier years in Bartlesville, would get together once a month and go out for her favorite food, a hamburger. Her favorite holiday was Halloween. Don't know why it was except she liked seeing the neighborhood kids dressed up and the festive activity perhaps. She liked the 'Great Pumpkin' with Charlie Brown. It may have reminded her of the farm. She had a great appreciation of Native American art. While retired in Tulsa she worked as a volunteer salesman in a local Native American art gallery selling works from local tribes artists. The local artists came to know her. She earned a few pieces of work as pay in return for her time. She is survived by her daughter, Jane Dunbar, of Bartlesville, OK and son Spencer of Germany; her son and his wife, Stephen and Janet Dunbar with sons Philip and Andrew of Broken Arrow, OK. Also surviving is her brother and his wife, Mack and Barbara Strubhar of Irving, Texas; niece Lita Strubhar, her daughter, Briana of Dallas; nephew, Joe, his wife Thanh, their 2 sons, Binh and Canh of Austin, Texas; along with numerous other cousins and friends. A memorial reception/visitation is being held by the family on Saturday, August 14, 2010 in the Texas Room of the Hampton Inn located at 4601 Cowhorn Creek Road in Texarkana from 1pm to 4pm.
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