In Memory

Diane Doxtator (Cox)

Diane Doxtator (Cox)

i received this notification from a friend of diane's.

While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet her behind the veil. I had to say goodbye to my sweet, funny, intelligent, generous, artistic and loving friend Diane Cox who lost her battle with pancreatic cancer yesterday. Please keep her family in prayer as they mourn her loss especially her loving daughter Michele who has been at her side every minute. I'm so grateful to have spent many weekends together watching wonderful movies and having many great conversations. If you have a friend that is sick, please spend every moment you can with them. Don't wait. You don't ever get those moments back

Here is Diane's Obituary

COX, Diane 1941 2017 REST IN PEACE

We are sad to announce the passing of our great friend and mother after a long battle with cancer on January 18th, 2017. Diane was a truly iconic character in business life and social life in all areas of Metro Atlanta and beyond. She will be greatly missed. She is survived by her daughter Michele Ritsch Hensey and two grandaughters Averill and Annie Ritsch. A memorial service will be held at 1.00 PM on February 11th 2017 at Peachtree Christian Church at 1580 Peachtree Street in Midtown. We would ask those who wish to, in lieu of flowers, donate to the Diane Cox/CREW Atlanta Scholarship initiated in her name. Donations can be made by check payable to CREW Atlanta and mailed to P.O. Box 5007 Alpharetta, GA 30023.

Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Jan. 29, 2017

 

 

 



 
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01/21/17 01:33 PM #1    

Judie Sherwood (Elliott)

Diane and I connected just before the 50th class reunion. We decided to be room mates for the week-end of the event. We had such a great time and went down memory lane. We drove around our old neighborhoods. We went into old downtown Palo Alto and walked around. Had ice cream sodas & milk shakes for dinner at the Creamery. I met her for dinner on a trip to Atlanta I took a few years ago. She flew into Reno and stayed with my husband and I later and we took the train to CA to see a few classmates. Even tho we were not close friends in high school we made up for it the last years. What fond memories. She will be missed by many. My prayers and thoughts are with her family and friends especially her daughter. She fought a valiant fight.

01/21/17 05:04 PM #2    

Jack Steffen

I'm Jack Steffen.  On the home page, I'm in the 9th picture down, with the bald head, white shirt and digital camera that I'm trying to figure out.   just read Judy Sherwood's (Elliott) sentiment to Diane.  Judy is a friend of mine, somewhat in school, but much more after our two reunions.  She is a very good friend of my sister, Billie Steffen (Cole), Cubberley granduate, 1958, who ordered me to find and talk to Judy at the renuion.  I never knew Diane while in school, but I really liked her outgoing personality (which I discovered during the renuion).  She did an outstanding job of setting up the 50th (along with Jimmy) and talked to me at the reunion several times--and, in fact, is the one who got me to get up and come dance with her and make a fool of myself (which I did) during the 50th.  So, of course, I was shocked to hear of her passing.  With that kind of vitality, I thought she'd live forever--certainly longer than me.  My deepest sympathy to her daugher and family.  I will really miss her--especially at our next reunion.  Prayers to to you, Diane.


01/22/17 08:21 AM #3    

Mike Canes

I knew Diane pretty well.  We were friends in High School, and after a few decades reconnected and had some long conversations.  She led a very full life, with some ups and downs, but she was a resilient person and also very talented.  I believe she originally came to Palo Alto with her mother from the Atlanta area, and years later moved back there, where she set up a business and tended a lovely garden.  She also did some writing, and always looked to expand her horizons.  She's definitely one of the Cubberley people I'll never forget.  May she rest in peace. 


01/22/17 08:56 AM #4    

Jerry Katsell

I got to know Diane a little at our 50th. What a wonderful, lively and attractive person! She shared herinterest in writing with me, and we subsequently exchanged some emails. Through this website I was able to follow her incredibly courageous struggle against an implacable disease -- she lived her life with passion, finding emotional respite in her family, friends, books and garden. May she rest in peace. Jerry Katsell


01/22/17 03:06 PM #5    

Abe Baily

Diane & I shared much time together in a "Special Senior Problems" class with Mr. (Ham) Smith & only two or three other students; virtually zero guidance or supervision.  We explored such profound subjects as whether or not peanuts enhanced sexual interest, whether all expression, even all phenomena percieved was an art form, and other similar questions where answers were unknown and probably unknowable, at least by us.  We dated a couple times after HS,( including at least one party at your house Jerry), but potential for anything serious was limited by her commitment to some guy I never met.  I told her at our 50th that I still remembered and appreciated her quirky, quick, and genuine sense of humor; she responded that her husband ('s?) claimed she didn't have one at all.  She was special and remembered now and then over the years.  I don't know how to use fb for squat but am thankful for it and for our 50th for reconnecting. 


01/23/17 06:23 AM #6    

James Glynn

I got to know Diane at our 50th reunion.  She was working on a novel, set in the Antebellum south (of course).  I had just finished my first novel, having taken an early retirement after 36 years of teaching college.  Although I have several published textbooks in sociology, I could not find an agent willing to take on a nascent novelist.  So, Diane and I critiqued each other's work via e-mail.  We had a deal that if one of us got our novel published, she or he would take the other on a trip to Italy.

 

In the spring, 2010, Diane (who seemed to live on the Internet) discovered that Holly Smith (the daughter of our Senior Problems/History teacher, Hamlin Smith) was teaching a class in digital photography in Varonna, on the shore of Lake Como, Italy.  Because there was a significant discount for double occupancy, we decided to go together.  

 

I flew to Atlanta from Fresno (near my home in Madera), and Diane took me out to dinner, where I managed to knock over my water glass.  Diane just smiled.  I spent that night at her house, and our plane took off the following morning.  But, before we left, I had the pleasure of meeting her daughter, a wonderful young woman who drove us to the airport.  Diane also had two other children, but I didn't get to meet them.

 

We deplaned in Milan, where everything was hectic.  Amid the confusion, I bought train tickets for Lake Como, not knowing that it was a $200 cab ride south of the villa in Varonna where we had booked a room.  Needless to say, Diane was not pleased with me.  However, I paid for the cab, and her feelings were soothed,

 

One of the things that we didn't know was that "double occupancy" in Italy means a double bed in a very small room with no other furniture except for a set of drawers.  I doubt that Diane would want me to say anything more about that.

 

It was the hottest summer that Europe had experienced in a hundred years, our villa had no air conditioning, and management could not even provide us with a circulating fan.  Local stores were out of the appliances, as well.  Because the guidebook explained that men who wore shorts were singled out as tourists and were preyed upon by local shopkeepers, I had packed no shorts. (The guidebook was incorrect!)   By the third day, I was so desperate that I took the ferry to Bellacio, across the lake, to buy a pair of shorts.  The only store that stocked such items was Armani, and the shorts cost about U.S. $125. When I got home, I had the shorts dry cleaned and donated them to the Cerebral Palsy Association.  Turns out that I have Costco legs, not the kind that Armani had in mind.

 

I'll never forget the twelve days that we spent together.  Interesting conversations, great meals, and even a quick day-trip to southern Switzerland.  I'm sorry to learn of her demise.

 


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