Diane (Franke) Pendley

Diane Pendley

Who was Diane? As with all of us this is a complicated question…

Diane was a combination of a native Texan, proud of her heritage as well as a businessperson who spent decades working in downtown New York City.

Diane loved.  Her family were very important to her. She relished the opportunity to spend time with them, from Easter Egg Hunts with neices and nephews and their children……to the weekend trip to Bubba’s for  Sunday dinners with him and his family.  As we all know Mary Beth was very, very loved by her, they were like twins.

Diane graduated from Chester H.S.,went to college in Nacogdoches and from there to Dallas .

She was married to Jim Pendley in her 20’s and 30’s and inherited from him a beloved step daughter Lori.  They have always been close.

There is a  photo  of  a cute 3 yr old in overalls. This was Diana …on the first day that Janet went to school.

   She wanted to GO so badly and definitely had to have her picture taken.

When “company” came to visit, a they did in those days, Diane would sit on their lap and beg to GO with them.  She always enjoyed being “on the road”!!!!!!!!!

Her work was very important to her.  Her profession in New York was as a Managing Director at Fitch Ratings overseeing groups internationally.. You and I probably do not understand what that is but she always found the work interesting.  , Through work she met  Said  and they have been close friends for many decades  She loved the business life( if you wanted to talk to her a 7 pm you knew to call the office, she would not be home yet. She enjoyed  her position, and  traveling on a moments notice all over the United States as well as England and Japan.  Eventually , of course, things changed as businesses decided for people to work more and more from home and she returned to Chester.  She however continued to work, she spoke recently about looking for another  case to work.

Diane was a very creative person. The daughter and granddaughter of exceptional seamstresses as a child her Barbie dolls had extensive collection of clothes. We all know that she loved cloths….Just recently Martha and Diane have been sharing time learning to operate Martha’s new embroidery machine.  They were planning and cutting pieces for quilts they planned to embroidry two days before she passed away.

We could not discuss Diane without including her favorite pastime, shopping.. You and I might make a list, she wanted to walk from aisle to aisle to see what was there.  Going with Diane to Houston or Lufkin was always an all day event (and usually into the night)…especially since she also Loved sleeping until 10 or so to get started

This creative person was perfect for her  business job and she carried it over into designing her home. and that of Al and Valerie.

  Another of her passions was crossword puzzles, she spent a weekend recently doing puzzles and visiting with “Miss Opal” her neighbor in Barnes.

(Charlotte  ,Tara, and Betty ,her dear friends, served lunch at her house.  Diane loved to have lots of people over !)

 A group of small photos were on display at the viewing and her home . In these the family have tried .to give friends opportunity to remember their experiences  with her and to give them a hint of her many qualities.

Our thanks to Krista and Billie for her loving care of Diane over the years. And special appreciation to the nurses. Jeanie and Lacey….who were so wonderful

Diane, you were loved and will be so missed!!!!!!

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