Diana Kay Holben

September 21, 1941 – August 21, 2011

Diana Kay Holben, the oldest of three children, was born to Baxter and Maxine Holben in Spearfish, S.D. on September 21, 1941.

After several moves, the family settled in Fremont, CA where Diana attended Barnard Elementary and Washington High School.

On Nov. 26, 1961 she married James S. Andrade of Niles (Fremont). She and James had two sons, Todd and Christopher, and later moved to Sweet Home, OR, where they lived for 28 years.

In later life they relocated to Riddle, OR where Diana died on August 21, 2011, one month before her 70th birthday and three months before her 50th wedding anniversary.

Diana was preceded in death by her father, Baxter Holben, her son Todd Andrade, and her brother, Terry Holben.

She is survived by her husband James Andrade, her son Christopher Andrade, her grandsons Evan Wingren and Troy Andrade, her mother Maxine Holben, her sister Nedra Harris, her daughter-in-law Debbie Wingren, her good friends Joyce DuCoty Mello and Fran Stover Ervin, and many other family members and friends.

Those are the statistics, but what was Diana like as a person? What was she like to those who loved her?

Diana was a very generous person, generous with her time and her talent, which made her a wonderful friend. She was always looking for ways to help people: if you told her your daughter was planting a garden, she would send some of her favorite tomato seeds with photos and planting instructions; if she knew you were looking for a certain makeup, she would send you at least three websites where you could order it, if she knew you liked roosters, she would send you a wall hanging of a rooster she had personally designed and created.

Some days she would wake up with the express goal of doing a good deed for someone that day. She once won a basket of fruit and candy and handed it to the first homeless person she met.

Diana was full of life. She split bark off of trees, gathered grasses, and wove baskets which were sold at a shop on the coast; she designed and hooked folk art rugs which were featured in at least three articles in ATHA, a specialty magazine; she painted beautiful flowers on plates (her ‘Four Season’ plates won first prize in the Oregon State Fair), she planted flowers and gardens, canned, cured olives, raised baby quail and pheasants, pickled quails’ eggs — you name it, she would try it. She told friends she wanted to live to be very old because there were so many things she wanted to do. In later life designing and hooking wool rugs became her real passion and she told friends she wished she had learned to do it when she was younger.

Diana was basically a happy, fun loving person. She laughed a lot and loved giggling with friends. She liked playing games and going on road trips; she didn’t like to fly. She had an adventurous spirit. She once convinced four friends to go with her to Arkansas to dig for diamonds. She also loved going to casinos and considered that ‘her escape’. Seven Feathers in Canyonville was a favorite and she won a big jackpot there just days before she died.

Even in death Diana was generous; she donated her body to Oregon Health and Science in Portland, OR.

Those who knew and loved Diana, and especially her husband James, will miss her greatly. Without her, the world is a little less kind and gentle.

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