Eulogy for Mildred Diekman By her daughter CAPT Diane Diekman, USN (ret) 25 April 2012 When Mildred Hanson received her Navy discharge and came home to the Hidewood Valley after World War II, she met a bachelor who had moved to the farm next door. John Diekman had been in the Army during the war. […]
MARTY ROBBINS BAND REUNION Seven members of Marty’s inner circle attended the Marty Robbins band reunion in Nashville on 18 July. Joe Vincent played steel for Marty in 1953-54. Earl White (now an Opry staff musician) was one of the original Tear Drops, Marty’s first official band. Jack Pruett played lead guitar from 1956 until […]
Bonanza was our favorite television show in the early 1960s, and my sister and I decided to write a letter to the local TV station to ask for a photo of the Cartwrights–Ben, Hoss, Adam, and Little Joe. I don’t remember whether Kayo (age 10) or I (age 12) came up with the idea, but […]
Since age 28 or so, I had wanted to be a mother. I enjoyed my independence as an officer in the U.S. Navy and was not particularly interested in getting married, but I checked into adoption possibilities whenever I moved to a new state. Each time, I was told that only couples could get their […]
Originally published in the Clear Lake Courier — January 31, 1996 Fifty-two years ago, two young South Dakota women joined the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted For Volunteer Emergency Service). They became acquainted when they moved into the same cubicle in the WAVES barracks at Naval Air Station, Hutchinson, Kansas. Lorraine Lee was from Lake Norden […]
Originally printed in the Clear Lake Courier — July 3, 1996 This isn’t the column I intended to write last month. I had expected to tell about running a forty-mile ultramarathon in Tennessee on May 4. Instead, that was the day I attended the funeral of my nephew, Cody Lee Paver. He was five years […]
I gave this eulogy at my dad’s funeral in Clear Lake, South Dakota, on September 11, 2003. In 1920 Herman Diekman moved his wife and four sons from Nebraska to a farm near Gary, South Dakota. He shipped his machinery, cattle and horses, household goods, and dogs by train. The German immigrant was buying into […]
9/ 12/1999 – celebrating 10th anniversary of liver transplant I gave this eulogy at my brother’s funeral in Clear Lake, South Dakota, on Saturday, 30 August 2003. My first memory of Kenny isn’t actually about Kenny. I don’t remember Mom bringing him home from the hospital. I don’t remember him as a little baby. But […]
Diane loved Little Joe Cartwright. It didn’t matter that he was a television character she saw every Sunday evening on Bonanza. “Hurry, Kayo. It’s almost a quarter to eight,” Diane said as she pulled on her hooded gray parka and zipped it. “I’m coming,” her younger sister replied. “It’s only half a mile […]