Dorothea "Sibby" Scott Whitten, 80, of Urbana, passed away in her sleep at her home at 8:11 a.m., Monday, August 8, 2011. Graveside services will be held at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at Woodlawn Cemetery, Urbana. The Rev. Ann Alley will officiate.

Mrs.Whitten was born October 30, 1930 in Fairmont, West Virginia to parents Henry and Dorothea (Gunnerson) Scott. She married Norman Whitten, Jr. on August 2, 1962 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He survives. Also surviving are one brother; Henry Scott, Jr. (Nan), of Richmond, Virginia, one nephew, and one niece.

Sibby received her Bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, then receieved her Master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sibby was a sociologist and worked for the Spurlock Museum as a curator for ten years and as a Research Associate in the Center for Latin American and Carribbean Studies at the University of Illinois.

Sibby came here in 1970 with her husband. She first visited Ecuador in 1963, returned in 1964 and 1965 while living and doing research in Colombia with Norman. After two summers of research Afro-Canadian people in Nova Scotia, Sibby, with her husband, returned to Ecuador where they spent from three months to 13 months at a time working with Canelos Quichua and Achuar Jivaroan indigenous people every year until 2008. In the 1980s Sibby took the lead in publication with Norman, and, in conjunction with major museum exhibitions wrote From Myth to Creation: Art from Amazonian Ecuador and edited Imagery and Creativity: Ethnoaesthetics and Art Worlds in the Americas. More recently, she collaborated with Norman in three books, contributing a major article on Amazonian and indigenous art in each: Millennial Ecuador: Critical Essays on Cultural Transformation and Social Dynamics, Puyo Runa: Imagery and Power in Modern Amazonia, and Histories of the Present: People and Power in Ecuador.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Spurlock Museum Whitten Gallery Fund, University of Illinois Foundation.