Deborah Dillon Lightfoot
{{short description|American paralympian}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Deborah Dillon Lightfoot
| image = DebbieDillon1976.png
| alt = A young white woman, smiling and wearing glasses
| caption = Deborah Dillon, from a 1976 newspaper
| other_names =
| birth_name = Deborah Ann Dillon
| birth_date = March 1, 1956
| birth_place = South Windsor, Connecticut
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|06|21|1956|03|01}}
| death_place = Lincoln, California
| occupation = Athlete, information systems analyst
| years_active =
| known_for = 1976 Paralympic Games, 1977 Stoke Mandeville Games, 1978 Pan American Games
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Deborah Dillon Lightfoot (March 1, 1956 – June 21, 2007) was an American wheelchair athlete. She was the third woman inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.
Early life and education
Deborah Ann Dillon was born in South Windsor, Connecticut, the daughter of Thomas J. Dillon and Patricia Sullivan Dillon.{{Cite news|date=2007-07-08|title=Deborah A. Dillon Lightfoot (obituary)|pages=B03|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80347934/deborah-a-dillon-lightfoot-obituary/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}} In February 1971, at age 14, she injured her spinal cord in a sledding accident, and became quadriplegic.{{Cite news|date=1974-02-19|title=Center Aids Girl, 17, To Walk Again|pages=8|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80348862/center-aids-girl-17-to-walk-again/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1976-07-30|title=Olympics for Disabled in Toronto Next Week|pages=28|work=The Bridgeport Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80349170/olympics-for-disabled-in-toronto-next/|access-date=2021-06-27}} Two years later, she was a delegate to the National 4-H Congress in Chicago.{{Cite news|last=Holdridge|first=S. Archie|date=1973-11-25|title=Farm News: 4-H Congress Draws Group from State|pages=45|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80349000/farm-news-4-h-congress-draws-group/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She also wrote articles about 4-H Club activities for the Hartford Courant.{{Cite news|last=Dillon|first=Debbie|date=1973-03-04|title=4-H Members Conduct Annual Ad Campaign|pages=141|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80348260/4-h-members-conduct-annual-ad-campaign/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
Dillon graduated from South Windsor High School in 1974, and attended the University of Illinois, where she played on the wheelchair basketball team and won medals in track and field events, including pentathlon, at the National Wheelchair Games in 1976, 1977 and 1978.{{Cite news|last=Lee|first=Bill|date=1976-07-04|title=Debbie Went from Near Disaster to Olympics|pages=25|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80348355/debbie-went-from-near-disaster-to/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Bryant|first=Pamela|date=1978-07-18|title=Area Woman Champion Despite Physical Disability|pages=17|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80348627/area-woman-champion-despite-physical/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She and teammate Sharon Hedrick were among the first wheelchair athletes to win the school's George Huff Award for student athletes.{{Cite journal|date=1980|title=George Huff Award 1979-1980|url=https://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/Books2010-05/sigmasigns/sigmasigns1978197919791980delt/sigmasigns1978197919791980delt.pdf|journal=Sigma Signs|pages=39}}
Dillon graduated from the University of Illinois in 1979, and earned a master's degree at San Jose State University in 1980.
Career
While she was a college student, Dillon was a member of the United States team at the 1976 Paralympic Games in Toronto. She also represented the United States as an athlete at the Stoke Mandeville Games in England in 1977, and at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro in 1978.{{Cite news|date=1978-07-12|title=Debbie Dillon Selected for Wheelchair Games|pages=63|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80348737/debbie-dillon-selected-for-wheelchair/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
Dillon Lightfoot was an information systems analyst with the California Department of Health Services. She continued active in sports in adulthood, as a founding member of the Bay Area Meteorites (a women's basketball team). She also played with the Sacramento Gold Rush. She was secretary of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) from 1982 to 2000, and in 2001 became the third woman inducted in the NWBA's Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|last=NWBA|date=2014-08-13|title=Deborah Dillon Lightfoot|url=https://www.nwba.org/news_article/show/540636-deborah-dillon-lightfoot|access-date=2021-06-27|website=National Wheelchair Basketball Association|language=en-us}}{{Cite news|date=2001-05-12|title=Honors for Lightfoot|pages=194|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80349933/honors-for-lightfoot/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Dillon married David H. Lightfoot in 1992.{{Cite news|date=1992-07-02|title=Dillon, Lightfoot Say Matrimonial Vows|pages=6|work=Lincoln News Messenger|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80350189/dillon-lightfoot-say-matrimonial-vows/|access-date=2021-06-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She died from cancer in Lincoln, California in 2007, aged 51 years. In 2015, she was posthumously inducted into the South Windsor High School Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|title=The Class of 2015 Inductees|url=http://highschool.southwindsorschools.org/school_info/hall_of_fame/the_class_of_2015_inductees|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-27|website=South Windsor High School Hall of Fame|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818142450/http://highschool.southwindsorschools.org:80/school_info/hall_of_fame/the_class_of_2015_inductees |archive-date=2017-08-18 }}
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dillon Lightfoot, Deborah}}
Category:21st-century American women
Category:20th-century American sportswomen
Category:American wheelchair users
Category:American women's wheelchair basketball players
Category:Deaths from cancer in California
Category:Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes
Category:People from South Windsor, Connecticut
Category:People with tetraplegia
Category:San Jose State University alumni