Diane Hughes

She was born in Denver, Colorado on July 21, 1937 to Harold Taft and Thelma Owen King. She attended East High School in Denver-- where she was President of her class and in the honor society-- before she went to Gulf Park School for Girls in Gulf Port, Mississippi. An avid skier and, in fact, a ski instructor, she loved Saturdays when her daddy would put her on the train from Denver to Winter Park for a glorious day of skiing. Because she graduated from high school at age 16, she attended Mount Vernon Junior College in Washington, D.C., where she was on the Student Council and the Dean’s Board. She then transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder. Diane loved her college days, pledging Kappa Kappa Gamma; skiing with the Buff Ski Club; getting to know the Yale University Whiffenpoofs; joining the Young Republicans on campus; and enjoying her time as a Denver Symphony Debutante and a Central City Flower Girl. But she was also a serious student who had a keen business acumen from a young age; her ambitions were high, and she was the only woman in the University of Colorado’s finance program that refused a secretarial position.

After graduating from college, Diane moved to New York City, where she lived at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. Her parents gave her two weeks to find a job or return home. On the 14th day, she secured a job as the first woman in Chase Manhattan Bank’s Executive training program. She loved the excitement and stimulation of New York City and was surprised to learn that her then fiancé, Dan Burney, had accepted a job as General Counsel of LTV in Dallas. So after 8 years in New York, she married Dan Burney from Ft. Worth and moved to Dallas where she sought a job as a business executive but was told numerous times that women could only be secretaries. That was just not acceptable to her, so she threw herself into the volunteer world, devoting countless hours to the Junior League of Dallas, the Dallas Opera Auxiliary Opera Action, and other organizations.

After her husband Dan passed away in 1974, Diane went back to school to get an MBA from Southern Methodist University’s School of Business. She did a superb job tending to her family’s business affairs. In 1980 she married David James Hughes, and they shared a wonderful life together until he passed away in 1996.

Diane was a member of the Junior League of Dallas, the Dallas Opera, the Dallas Symphony League, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Women’s Financial Series at SMU, the Tate Lecture Series, the Dallas Country Club, the Dallas Woman’s Club, the Dallas Garden Club, Ridotto, Topics and Trends, Art About Town and CONNECT. She had a lifelong thirst for knowledge and was a voracious reader. She also loved taking her grandchildren to the Dallas Summer Musicals and to the Nutcracker Ballet at Christmas time!

Diane was the most colorful person we know. Possessing an unmatched sense of style, she sparkled, making a personal statement by wearing beautiful, bright colors every day. She had a way of turning the ordinary into something extraordinary, whether that be a tablescape, a room, an outfit or an experience. She was an avid traveler and loved her many trips to Europe, Africa, China, and Russia. At age 60, she decided to learn to paint, and she enjoyed painting lovely pictures of scenes in places such as San Miguel, the Bahamas, Europe and Dallas.

Family was extremely important to Diane, and she was most happy when her entire family surrounded her. She will be dearly missed by her family and her many wonderful friends. Diane is survived by a devoted family: daughter Kendall King Burney Wilson and son-in-law Richard Wilson; son King Burney Hughes; and four grandchildren she adored: Lauren King Savage, Jessica Diane Savage, Alexandra Trammell Hughes, and King Burney Hughes, Jr.

Visitation will be held at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W. Northwest Hwy., Dallas, TX on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5-7 p.m. A Celebration of Life will be held at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church at 8011 Douglas Avenue on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 12 Noon, with a reception to follow at the Dallas Country Club. Please wear bright colors in honor of Diane. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, or the National Kidney Foundation serving Texas.