Debra Anne Dillman

Debra Anne Dillman was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 16, 1957, to Marion Louise Simmons Dillman and Robert Emanuel Dillman. The third of four girls, she grew up in West Haven with her sisters Donna June and Denise Lynette, following the passing of her infant sister Cathy Ann. From her earliest years, Debbie found joy in music and performance. She loved playing the piano, singing, and creating theatrical moments with her family, skills she inherited from her mother’s love of making things and her father’s passion for performance.

During her time at West Haven High School, Debbie traveled to Italy with her choir and her mother to sing for the Pope. At eighteen she left home for Provo, Utah, where she attended Brigham Young University and earned an Associate of Arts degree. After returning to Connecticut, she met and married Frank Charles Martinez IV. Motherhood became her greatest calling and deepest joy. She gave birth to three children—Francis Carlos Martinez V, DeAnne Marissa Martinez, and Danielle MariElena Martinez—each in different places as the family moved.

Debbie and her family eventually settled in Orem, Utah, and later lived in various communities throughout Northern Utah. She devoted herself to raising her children, teaching them, and serving her friends and neighbors. Her creative spirit found expression through music, sewing, baking, cooking, gardening, decorating, writing poetry, and participating in theatre. When she worked outside the home, she drew on her talent for mathematics, preparing taxes for H&R Block. After she and Frank separated in 2001, Debbie bought a home in Ogden, where she continued to fill her days with creation and song, sharing music with her children, nephews, niece, and extended family.

Debbie passed away on March 8, 2026, after a brief battle with cancer. She returned to the embrace of her mother, father, sister Cathy Ann, and all those she had loved and lost. She is remembered with love by her children, siblings, and the many lives she touched through her warmth, creativity, and generous spirit.