Dr. Paula Aurellia (Roberts) McCaghren

Dr. Paula Aurellia Roberts McCaghren, EdD, died of Covid on September 4, 2021. A private family viewing and burial is scheduled for Friday, September 10th, at Brown Funeral Home located at 231 E. Commercial St. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74012.

Paula, the daughter of Paul Carlan Roberts and Frances Burnese Kelsoe, was born in Decatur, Alabama on May 4, 1951.  Decatur is where she grew up and where she married Jerry M. McCaghren in 1974, they had one daughter, Jaye Paula McCaghren.  Paula earned a BA (1973) and MA (1976) at the University of Alabama. She later went on to earn a PhD from Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.  A cognitive and behavioral psychologist, she was an advocate for those with mental health and developmental disabilities.  During her professional career of over 40 years she worked in  Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, and finally in Owensboro, Kentucky.  At the time of her retirement Paula served as Senior Director for Outpatient Clinical Services at River Valley Behavioral Health, in Owensboro, Kentucky.  There she was seen as "a great leader who takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to go."  As an adjunct faculty she taught in the Graduate Mental Health Counseling program at Lindsey Wilson College and Western Kentucky University.  In addition, she served on numerous committees and boards that related to community crisis, disaster preparedness, and was a trained hostage negotiator.

She was preceded in death by her parents Paul Carlan Roberts and Frances Burnese Kelsoe.   Survivors include her daughter, Jaye Paula McCaghren and her granddaughter, Avery McCoy, both of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; sister Bonnie Roberts Izadi of Las Vegas, Nevada; and nephew Arman Izadi of Las Vegas, Nevada.

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