Debra Jean Pillars

Debra Jean Pillars passed away on March 6, 2023 at her home in Fort Worth, Texas, surrounded by her family and cats. She was born December 11, 1957 in Syracuse, N.Y. to Anne Evelyn (Jones) Pillars and James Edward Pillars and grew up in Horseheads and Binghamton, N.Y. before (reluctantly) moving with her family to Texas in 1974.

She fondly recalled childhood summers spent with her sister Diane Lynette Pillars and brother Bruce Edward Pillars with their grandparents Norman and Jeannette (Frost) Jones and great-aunt Violet Irene Carrie Jones. They spent time hiking, camping and fishing in the Adirondacks and at the family cottage on Lake Ontario. Throughout her life, she enjoyed traveling and camping with friends and family, although she always returned to upstate New York and Lake Ontario.

Deb graduated from the University of North Texas (then NTSU) and worked as a waitress for several years before her work on a domestic violence crisis hotline led to a career at Women's Haven of Fort Worth as a case manager and legal advocate. After her time in domestic violence advocacy, she worked as a landscaper and landscape photographer.

Deb married Kevin Alan Mogul in 1986 and had a daughter, Katey Maya Dare Pillars, in 1989. Kevin and Deb separated in the early 1990s.

Deb was a loyal congregant at Unity Church with Reverend Paul John Roach starting in the 1990s. Through the church she met many of her beloved friends, including

James David Tipps, who she married in November 2010 after living together for 10 years. He passed away suddenly after two weeks of marriage, but remained the love of her life.

Deb loved beauty and surrounded herself with beautiful people, cats, and objects. Some of her remarkable artistic projects include 5 decades of photographing clouds; hand painting the floorboards throughout her house to look like hardwood flooring (the culmination of a lifelong study of the material); decades of daily journaling that included poetry, prayers, and sketches; and a collection of rocks from everywhere she visited. The wisteria that drapes her house put out the first bloom of the year the day after she passed.

Deb is survived by her daughter, Katey Pillars; son-in-law William Forrest Holden; sister, Diane Pillars; niece, Olivia Anne Taylor; 8 cats: Bud, Merry, Electric Moonkitty, Thunder, Violet, Comet, Holy Moly, and George Trouble; and one grand-kitty, Zaitsa.