Diane Elaine Dupre

Diane Elaine Dupre (nee Nelson), 86, an amazing mother of nine children, passed away peacefully on August 3, 2023. Diane was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 5, 1936, to Marion (Elaine) and Myron (James) Nelson. As the eldest of six children (Marilyn, Jim, Jack, Judy, and Tom), Diane learned to “mother” at an early age. Diane married Ronald F. Dupre 68 years ago on September 25, 1954.

Diane is predeceased by her son David and grandson Anthony Rush. She is survived by her beloved husband Ron and their eight children: Barbara (Bill) Dunbar, Robert (Rita) Dupre, Gregory (Karen) Dupre, Deborah (Kevin) Perron, Thomas Dupre, Mary Anderson, Keith Dupre, and Richard (Matthew Woods) Dupre. Diane is also survived by her eleven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will begin on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at 9:30 a.m., followed by Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m., at The Church of the Epiphany, 1900 111th Avenue NW, Coon Rapids, Minnesota 55433. A lunch will follow the Mass.

A life is made of moments, most not terribly epic, but when you look back, you can see how even the small things shape and define us. We will share some of those things here so you can remember (or get to know) our special mother.

The Early Years

Diane grew up in Saint Paul. Some of her best memories were from the time they lived at Fuller and Dale. It was a great big Tudor house with three stories and a garage that accommodated a truck. Her dad had started a trucking company and was building a prosperous life. Diane loved that house and often talked of crazy times with brothers falling out of windows onto bushes unharmed, Saturdays spent endlessly dusting woodwork, and ghost stories about her Uncle Dud. Unfortunately, Diane’s dad died young and the Nelson clan had to grow up pretty fast. Grandma (Elaine) had a lot to manage, and things did change for the family. But through it all, Diane loved her siblings dearly and credited those tough times for forging strong bonds. Her sisters and brothers were her best friends. She admired Marilyn’s intelligence and strength, Judy made her laugh and told the best stories, Jack was the rascal with a heart of gold, Jim shared her faith, and Tom was always her baby.

There’s a photo of Diane at around age 10 with blond locks, holding a big trophy with the smile she wore until the end. Those looks and that smile attracted Ron Dupre to her at around age 13. She liked to tell her family that she was “definitely not interested in that boy from Mechanic Arts High School,” and promptly took up smoking when Ron told her he would never date a girl who smoked. She quit smoking at age 42, having had nine children and celebrating the first 24 years of their marriage. That love story never ended. Ron overlooked the smoking. With Diane at 5’2 and Ron at 6’4, they really fit together surprisingly well on a dance floor.

Diane birthed nine children (Barb, David, Bobby, Greg, Debbie, TJ, Mary, Keith, and Ricky) when she was between the ages of 19 and 32. There were two miscarriages and a stillbirth tucked in there too. You guessed it, Catholic. There were tough years and broke years, but our mom was a master at not showing her worry. It’s a wonder how she managed all the stress of nine mouths and nine rascals, but she did it amazingly well.

Diane in The Kitchen

She was an extraordinarily messy cook. She created meals by instinct, not recipes. Her family had a lot of big pot meals served on a picnic table in the kitchen. Each dish conjures a memory of its own: goulash, chow mein hotdish, pork and beef roasts together in a roaster with potatoes, carrots and green beans, ham gravy, scalloped potatoes, rigatoni, hot chocolate with cinnamon toast, coconut cream pies, Swiss steak, creamed tuna on toast, porcupine meatballs cooked in a pressure cooker, German chocolate cake, fried eggplant, seven layer salad, Waldorf salad, and baked beans… each of us kids had our favorite meals.

Diane mixed salads with her hands. “It is the best way to not end up with mashed potatoes in your potato salad, she would say” She was a great baker and taught herself to decorate cakes. Her doll cakes were a standout. They had elaborately decorated hoop skirts and a naked half Barbie on top that she made more modest with icing.

Thrift was vital with nine mouths to feed. Our family had a lot of frozen and canned veggies from our garden, but we also enjoyed many mystery canned veggies. Dad would buy cases of unlabeled cans for cheap, and Mom made it a game to guess what we were going to get. Creamed corn was the jackpot. She was never a brand loyalist and shopped for value. She made the list and Dad did the shopping (often at three stores to take advantage of all the weekly specials).

Her porkchops were always over cooked, but that was because she loved us and did not want us to die of Trichinosis.

Diane’s Beauty Regimen

Mom was pretty. And like all of us, she wanted to look good. Mom believed in the power of Oil of Olay. Her lovely skin proved its worth. Aids Diet Candies helped her get in shape after years of birthing babies. Most of us kids snuck those candies and soon learned about their laxative properties. She wore torturous spiky rollers to achieve her signature hairdo. It was always hectic at home but Mom found time to do the occasional hot oil treatment. We can all picture her in those plastic gloves with her slick hair. Special shout out to my Aunt Audrey for all the wonderful weekends spent in her basement salon. Aud would give Mom a cut, color, and perm at a price a mother of nine could afford. The two of them laughed and carried on the whole time.

Diane Went to Work

After all the kids were in school full-time, Diane parlayed her culinary skills into a job at the bakery in Jensen’s grocery store and eventually became an elementary school cook. (Some of us kids still have the urge to hug all lunch ladies.) With a job, Diane decided it was time to learn how to drive. She bought a baby blue vinyl-topped Maverick at age 42. Our dad was a very nervous instructor, so Debbie took the lead and gave her driving lessons.

Diane’s Superpowers

Diane could knit in her sleep. We all witnessed it. Old family photos reflect all those sweaters with snowflakes and deer, zig-zaggy Afghans, and doilies that were created by Diane’s muscle memory as she took a nap. She could make her own pattern to fashion a crocheted cover for anything, including our toilet paper, toaster, and toilet seat. She would work for a year on a delicately lacy crocheted tablecloth and gift it to a beloved friend. Who spends a year making a gift?

If anyone wanted to unburden themselves, they could talk to Diane. She listened intently and resisted the urge to dispense advice or interrupt with a tale from her own life. She just listened. There was sometimes wisdom shared at the end, but mostly you just felt heard. It could be maddening at times because she gave the same attention to our friends. We thought we were going to have a great time playing, but then our pals spent the evening talking to Mom.

Diane’s spring cleaning was epic. Us kids were enlisted to remove switch plates and vent covers while Mom scrubbed walls and ceilings with sudsy ammonia. The fumes once inadvertently took the life of my grandma Dupre’s talking parakeet. Sorry pretty bird.

No matter what the crisis was, Mom did not swear or spew vitriol. Her move to empathy was seamless. If she was offered “the finger” by an angry driver, she immediately gave them grace by owning her less-than-stellar driving (all of us kids could tell you stories) or by understanding that people have bad days. If we swore, we were threatened with having our mouths washed out with soap. That was not an empty threat.

Diane had super-human hearing. She could hear an ice cream bucket lid filled with cookies being pried off way down in the basement, and would yell down the stairs for us to stop sneaking cookies from the freezer or we would not have any left for Christmas.

She was psychic. Our brother David died when I was 13. Mom was visiting him at the hospital but had to come home to feed us kids. As she was driving away from the hospital, she had a feeling. She did a U-turn and arrived back at the hospital to hear a code blue being called for David’s room.

Evidently, we had a mean neighbor when we lived on Marion Street. This neighbor did not appreciate the family with nine kids next door. He decided to spray some of us urchins with his hose and Mom was so mad that she practically levitated over the fence and Dad had to restrain her with her arms and legs flailing. Don’t mess with her kids. Super-human strength can be listed as one of her powers.

Diane could calm babies.

Diane Elaine Dupre never wrote a novel or flew a plane. She was not a corporate titan or a dazzling wit. She was an amazing mother and wife who loved us all though the big struggles and the small moments. She was the least sarcastic person most anyone had ever met, and she saw the good in most people. She led with empathy. She did not wallow in sadness and would likely advise us all to not wallow in sadness for her passing.

She never sang her own praises, so we are all left to do that for her. Please share your memories and stories on the comment board of this site. We would all love to hear your recollections.