Carla Dianne Bell Avery

Carla Dianne Bell Avery was born on 17 December 1948 in Enid, Oklahoma. She graduated in 1966 and attended Oklahoma University to study nursing, where she met and married her husband, Michael.

Mike became a member of the U.S. Marines and served in Viet Nam, while Carla remained in Norman with their first daughter. When Mike left the Marine Corps, they moved back to Oklahoma, where their second and third daughters were born. From there, they moved to Wasilla, Alaska, where they remained until 2001.

Carla was artistic and creative, with many talents: writing, drawing, wood-working, quilting, painting, embroidery, decoupage. She often spoke of the state’s incredible beauty. Books were never far from her hands.

Her health was always precarious, and after Mike’s death of a sudden stroke in 2000, it began to decline. She returned to Oklahoma to live in Norman. She passed away there while in hospice care on 11 March 2016.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Mike; her brother, Donald Lee Bell, in 2013; and her daughter, Rebecca Dianne Avery Ashing, in 2015. She is survived by her daughters, Linda Avery Strange, Colorado, and Evanna Avery, Oklahoma City; plus two granddaughters.