Mary Ellen Diez

Through the 1950s, Mary Ellen and her husband Charles “Charlie” Diez, Jr. owned dairy farms in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties, and after she helped Charlie get through law school, they and their four children settled in Englewood in 1964, where Charlie practiced law for more than fifty years.

Adopting Englewood as her home, Mary Ellen became an active part of the community, serving as an early president of the board of the Loveland School. She became a real estate agent and broker, owned her own brokerage for 12 years, and was elected president of the Englewood Area Board of Realtors. She was a founding member of the board of directors for the Englewood Community Care Clinic and served for years on the Englewood Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) Advisory Board. She was especially proud of the work she did with the CRA, most notably her efforts to bring a veterans’ memorial to Englewood.

In addition to raising four children to adulthood and enjoying success as a Realtor, Mary Ellen was an exceptional tennis player, a private pilot, a magna cum laude graduate of Manatee Community College, and a die-hard Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan; the team named her “Best Mom in the Bay” in 2008.

Mary Ellen was predeceased in 1963 by an infant son, Phillip, and in 2017 by Charlie, her husband of 65 years. She is survived by two sons, Nick (Susan) Diez of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Mike (Donna) Diez of Englewood; and two daughters, Patty (David) Reaves of Venice and Mary Ann (Chuck) Floyd of Englewood. She is also survived by five grandchildren, Caroline Diez of Ft. Worth, Texas, Charlie (Jessica) Diez of Myrtle Beach, Christopher Reaves of Venice, Amy Fox of Seattle, Washington, and Shanna Floyd, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is also survived by four great-grandchildren and her beloved dog Beau.

A mass of Christian burial will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, November 25, 2024, at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Englewood, with interment at Gulf Pines Memorial Park to follow.

If you would like to honor Mary Ellen’s life, please consider a donation to the Englewood Community Care Clinic (https://www.englewoodclinic.org) or the Suncoast Humane Society (https://humane.org).