Diane Eleanor Smith

Diane Smith was born September 26, 1939, in New York State, to Agnes and Edward Melville. Her dad died when she was very young, drowning while saving Diane’s brother. This tragedy had an impact on Diane as she had a fear of water for the remainder of her life. Agnes remarried a man named Roy Dunn and that brought more siblings into Diane’s life. She was very close to all her siblings.

The family moved to California for Diane’s formative years. She married at the very young age of 16 and had her first child in Oroville, in Northern California. She moved to Seattle with her first husband in the early 70s.

Once her kids were grown, she married her third husband Jim. They were introduced through Betty, Jim’s sister. They were married in July of 1986 and were together for 35 years. They had just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary four days before Diane passed.

The “Jim Years” were undoubtedly the best years of her life. Of course, she always had a close relationship with her mother. And Diane was always there for her kids. What we can say for sure is that her grandkids were the highlight of her life. Her grandkids were everything to her. Diane was all too happy to be involved with her grandkids. She took them places and did activities with them.

Diane worked for Chubby and Tubby’s for a good portion of her life. She loved that place, and its dizzying array of eclectic goods. She worked mostly in the White Center Chubby and Tubby, then transferred to another of their stores when that one closed. She ended up retiring when they closed down the business.

Diane Loved The Casinos; any casino! She loved the slot machines, particularly Jackpot Party, the old school slot machines. She liked to just keep pressing that button. She loved her scratch tickets and made Jim go all around town to purchase lottery tickets from different retailers, because she didn’t want them all from one location.

She liked to go on vacations with family. She went to Hawaii first with Mark’s family. And that got her hooked. She went with Gina’s family three years in a row. Her last trip was in 2019 before Covid hit. But she loved taking trips. She went on road trips to Portland, California, Montana, Nevada and also took a trip to Arizona with Gina’s family. Diane enjoyed that her sister Lois would also come with Gina’s family to Hawaii. Diane just liked the exotic landscape and the flowers and the trees; the entire scene. She liked to sit in the smoking section of the resort, smoke her cigarettes, just watching people, talking and socializing with the other vacationers, and taking in the scene. She loved taking trips.

She loved Lifetime movies; taking in shows like Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched by an Angel, or, Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. She liked many of the old shows. Perhaps her favorite was “Wheel of Fortune”. From 7:00 o’clock she was glued to Wheel of Fortune and you were not allowed to call her during that hour. Or, if she was over at your house when that show came on, you had to be quiet so she could concentrate on watching it.

Going out to eat was a big thing for Diane. She liked Crispy Chicken sandwiches. And ANY type of bread. If you were a restaurant, you had better not skimp on the bread, because she always wanted more. Perkins was her favorite restaurant. She also liked the Olive Garden, Applebees and Huckleberrys. She was very particular on her servers at her frequented restaurants. She only wanted to sit in their sections. When the smoking rules changes, that didn’t stop her, she just went outside.

She had a few dishes she made REALLY well, a limited repertoire. She was famous for her Pasta Salad and her pumpkin pie. She actually won a recipe prize for her pumpkin pie. But mostly - she liked going out to restaurants to eat.

She liked planting her garden with flowers. That started first in her West Seattle house. Then their Burien house. After Grandpa Jim retired in 2006, they moved to Cle Elum, where Jim already owned a house. But Diane traveled back to Seattle frequently to visit family.

She loved music. Especially Country Music. She always had her radio tuned into a country music station. She used to go dancing back in her day - in South Park at a restaurant/bar called The County Line and Franky and Joes in Georgetown. She and Jim - and other family members - would dance away. She liked going with her people: her friends or with her kids.

Diane mostly went with the flow. She didn’t have a lot of set rules. She was Non-judgmental, not old school. She loved you regardless of where you were at. Early on in her parenting days she was more structured but once she was divorced from her first husband she became more lax.

She was particularly suited to being a grandmother. She loved being a grandma. Really, she just loved hanging out with her people.

Diane is a woman who will be remembered for her devotion to family. Loving her kids and her grandkids was her main purpose in life. As long as you were responsive, called her - and visited her - that’s all she was looking for. She was always there for her children and grandchildren.

She could be a spitfire. Everyone learned to just live with it. Jim was definitely good for her. They made a great team.

If you absolutely had to sum up Diane’s life in as few words as you could, it might be as simple as: “Casino. Visiting family. And going out to eat.” That simple. She herself would have said she lived a good life. She had some rough patches, but in the end she loved her kids and grandkids. That was all that mattered to her.

Diane Smith passed away on July 16, 2021. She had been in and out of the hospital for months. She was placed on Hospice Care that Wednesday. And on her final day, her family had been with her the entire day. They were able to say their goodbyes. They played country music for her, as she was in her final hours. She was 81 years old.

She was predeceased by her sons Dale and Keith, and by her brothers Eric, Eddie, Clyde, and Raymond.

Diane is survived by her sisters: Lois, Pat, Teresa, and Debbie. And by her husband of 35 years, Jim.

She also leaves behind her adored children: David, Silinda, Mark, Kenny, and Kevin. And a whole bunch of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We will miss this amazing woman, Diane, but we will cherish her memories, deeply in our hearts, forever.