Diane B. Stone

Beloved Diane Stone Diane led a joyful and adventurous life. She captained the ladies rifle team as a sophomore at Syracuse University where she captured the captain of the men's team (husband Ed). Starting as a city girl, she became an uncommonly good shot with rifle and pistol but readily admitted no ability to "hit the broad side of a barn" with the shotgun. Shortly they departed for Denver where Randy and Debbie joined the family. Three and a half glorious years in Juneau, much of it on the Stone's "boat" (an open 17 foot skiff), led to her greatest trophy, a two foot silver salmon. In 1966 the family moved to Bowie to accommodate Ed's job at the Forest Service's headquarters in Washington. Ed then spent a year of his spare time acquiring a pilot's license. Diane did it in six months after being "hooked" by a free lesson for Christmas. Because her fair skin sunburned easily, she wore a white cowboy hat in her bubble canopy trainer. Traffic controllers looking down from the tower at Dulles referred to her as "one of the Good Guys" as her cheery voice on the radio, her flaming red hair, and the hat never failed to capture their attention. Because all her relatives are of Swedish extraction, Diane openly acknowledged (and was secretly proud) to be the only "purebred" in the Stone family! The old saying "10,000 Swedes ran through the weeds, pursued by one Norwegian," never failed to get a rise out of her. A mere mention of "10,000 Swedes" brought on her (mock) wrath.... she was not about to accept that anyone could be superior to a Swede. Diane would sometimes ask Ed, "What color are my eyes?," knowing full well that the answer would be, "Muskeg". "Muskeg" is a local term for a Southeastern Alaskan swamp, where the colors green and brown predominate, often including flecks of red and yellow. This response generated all sorts of mock indignation, followed by a good laugh. Putting her Syracuse education in accounting to good use, Diane went to work as a bookkeeper with Bowie's Belair Engineering in the late 1960's. This soon led to her forming her own practice which sometimes involved responding to an accounting firm's plea that she save some company by straightening out the books. Ed threatened to buy her a white horse so she could "sally forth in style". Her business was soon joined by daughter Debbie and the teaching began, leading eventually to the student teaching the teacher, much to Diane's joy and satisfaction. Diane was the loving wife of Edward H. Stone II, proud mother and survived by her son Randy and his wife Gail, daughter Debbie, and proud grandmother of Tom, Stacey and Ed III. She is also survived by her dear brother Frank and his wife Carol, brother-in-law Jerry and wife Marvie and nieces and nephews Kevin, Jamie, William, Steven, Suna and John.