Gayle Dubowski a quiet girl who made her mark through music

Sweet and quiet is how friends and former instructors at Glenbard North High School remember Gayle Dubowski.

But put her in a choir robe and on some risers, that's where she found her voice.

The 2006 graduate of Glenbard North was a mainstay of several choral programs throughout her four years in high school, even scoring a coveted spot her senior year as a member of the school's Gold Tones singing group.

"Here was this sweet, quiet girl with the voice of an angel," said Robin Craig, Dubowski's guidance counselor. "She graced this Earth with a beautiful voice and a serving heart."

The 20-year-old was one of five victims shot and killed by a gunman at Northern Illinois University in an Ocean Sciences class Thursday. Craig believed Dubowski was probably studying to be a teacher, but wasn't certain because she wasn't at school to look up her former pupil's records.

"I came home from work to cry and lie down for a bit, and try to make sense out of the shootings," she said. "That's impossible."

Dubowski was a year ahead of Brandy Leckner, but they had gone to school together since Leckner was a kindergartner. She also performed in choir with Dubowski.

"She was a very good singer," Leckner said. "She would talk with us and try to get us younger singers to open up when we sang."

Funeral arrangements are pending.