Amy Elizabeth (Wortman) Pehlke, of Westlake Village, passed away from complications due to metastatic breast cancer at age 50 on February 25, 2020. Born in Detroit in 1969, she attended Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education. In 1995, she married David Richard Pehlke at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Amy began her career as a special education teacher from a young age while still in high school, working with wonderful/loving children having severe multiple impairments (SXI) to improve their mobility, self-care, social and communication skills. She dedicated herself to that part of her career in the Washtenaw and Jackson school districts in Michigan, and for 3 years in the Conejo Valley Unified School district at Dean Triggs School in Thousand Oaks from 1994-1997. Amy worked a strong program in Alcoholics Anonymous, celebrated her own sobriety in gratitude, and invested her boundless joyful energies in service to others and the program as a way to give back what was so freely given to her. She enjoyed skydiving at age 40 and 50 as a way to celebrate birthday milestones, loved playing competitive Mahjong, watching British crime shows, loved her Havanese dog Decker dearly, climbed Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, and Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica, traveled extensively to France, Switzerland, and broader Europe (including an adventure on her own to England, France, Italy, and Switzerland when she was just 18 years old), as well as all around the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. She and her family lived at various times in Ypsilanti Michigan, Thousand Oaks California, Chapel Hill North Carolina, Austin Texas, and most recently returned in 2012 to Westlake Village, California. Her wonderful and ever-present smile, joyful outlook, deeply caring heart, and compassionate, kind, and loyal commitment in friendship endeared her to countless friends, and her concern for others continued without complaint despite her difficult and painful battle with cancer to the end.
She is survived by her beloved husband David Pehlke (Westlake Village, CA), two sons, Jackson (Los Angeles, CA) and Joseph Pehlke (Santa Cruz, CA), mother Carol Monroe Trankle and stepfather Jim Trankle (Rapid City, SD), father Alex Wortman and stepmother Zena Sheinberg (Ann Arbor, MI), brother Anton Wortman and sister-in-law Megan Wheeler (Sullivan’s Island, SC), grandmother Lavonne Trankle (Rapid City, SD), as well as wonderful aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and extended family.
Funeral services are private and will be held at the convenience of the family. A celebration of Amy’s life will be announced at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial gift to advance cancer research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Donations may be directed to the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation, Attn: Diana Howard; 8-950 Factor Bldg, Box 951780, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1780; (310) 206-0675; www.cancer.ucla.edu/donate. Please note that your gift is in memory of Amy Pehlke.
You may also make a donation to your favorite animal shelter in Amy’s memory.
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