Jilleen Dolbeare

Jilleen Ingram Dolbeare was born on September 26, 1967, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the first of four children born to Cregg and JoAnne Ingram. When Jill was 9 years old, the Ingram family moved to Elk Ridge, Utah, which was a little bit of heaven on Earth.

She attended schools in Payson, Utah, and graduated from Payson High School in 1985. During her high school years, Jill enjoyed riding horses, participating on the swim team, reading all the books she could find, and attending church. Jill loved animals and always had horses or cats who she doted on, and who lived far better than most humans.

After high school, Jill attended Utah Technical College, Dixie Technical College, and finally Brigham Young University, where she graduated with a degree in English Language in 1991. She went on to obtain her teaching degree in Special Education with an emphasis in English Language Arts. She taught in Wasatch School District and Nebo School District while in Utah.

In 2001, Jill met and married the love of her life, Chad Dolbeare. They married in the Salt Lake City Temple for time and all eternity on August 3, 2001. Throughout their marriage, they moved to several states together including Kansas, Utah, Oregon, and finally settled in Alaska.

Jill thrived in the harshest environments that Alaska had to offer. She enjoyed living in Barrow, Alaska (the furthest north city in the U.S.) for five years, then moved to Petersburg, Alaska, a lovely island off the southeast coast of Alaska. She loved traveling and was able to visit Europe and Mexico multiple times, as well as most of the 50 states. She also enjoyed fishing, walking, watching wildlife, attending church, and helping anyone with anything at any time.

She revered the local native Alaskans and their culture while living in freezing temperatures for 7–8 months out of the year. Dressed in proper local garb, Jill loved riding her four-wheeler all around the village of Barrow in the worst possible winter conditions and walking to the store on frozen streets. However, her love for the cold ended when she was at home and in charge of the thermostat.

During her 24 years of marriage, and before retiring each night, Jill maintained a standard of conversation with laughter and/or listening to music as she sang every word of every song. Despite this, she was ironically unable to name a single artist or the title of a single song (except for all things Billy Joel). She was musically talented and played the piano and clarinet. She also conducted choir at church.

Jill was a true insatiable reader her entire life. Without effort, she read a minimum of two books a week for decades. From an early age, Jill wanted to be a writer. She talked about it all the time with her siblings and friends. In 2021, she realized her dream when she started publishing not her first book, but her first series, The Shadow Winged Chronicles (3 books). She then moved on to other series: Splintered Magic (6 books), The Portlock Paranormal Detective Series (8 books), Splintered Realms (3 books), and The Bounty Hunter and the Assassin (1 book). One of her series is ranked 67th out of 60,000,000 books listed on Amazon, making Jill truly “one in a million.”

Jill’s legacy of love, laughter, and learning will be carried on as she rests in eternal peace. She was a friend to the friendless and kind to all. She was generous, thoughtful, tough, adventurous, intelligent, talented, and lovely inside and out. She was also mischievous, which you could see when she flashed her impish grin. She was all things good, honorable, and gracious. She had a sharp wit and a quick tongue that translated well into her books, where all the protagonists were strong, witty, independent women—just like Jill. Her friend said it best: “…the ripples of Jill’s life will continue for a very long time indeed.”

She is survived by her wonderful and loving husband, Chad Dolbeare, and her cat, Gus. She is also survived by her siblings, Dani (Todd) Olsen, Erin Rasmussen, and Matt Ingram; sister-in-law, Joelle Swift; her nieces and nephews, Kapena Olsen, Kelston Swift, Kate Olsen, Ari Rasmussen, Baylee Rasmussen, Jaycie Swift, Landon Swift, Kana’i Aupuni Olsen, and Kahekili Olsen; and all of her wonderful, fun, and close-knit aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.