Diane Merritt

Diane attended Paris High School, Paris Junior College and East Texas State University, graduating in 1969 with a degree in English and Art.

Diane was lucky in love and in 1963 met her future husband, Michael “Mike” Dwayne Merritt when Diane was a junior and Mike a senior at Paris High School when. Although they were students at the same time, they actually met at the Safeway where they both worked. Mike and Diane were married on August 31,1968 and soon moved to Orange County, California where they quickly became Californians for life. It was here that they developed enduring friendships that would be better described as family. Mike and Diane loved to travel, particularly across the United States, and often traveled with their lifelong friends.

Diane began working for the Orange County Probation Department as an intern in 1973. She progressed to be a supervisor at the Probation Department and retired in 2003 after 30 years of service. Diane truly spent her life in service to others, in her career as a probation officer supporting those trying to rebuild their lives, and, alongside her husband, serving as foster parents to emotionally challenged teens.

Diane’s unwavering faith in the Heavenly Father is the foundation upon which she built her life. She and Mike were active members of a small Christian fellowship for 30 years and in recent years at Coastal Community Fellowship. They celebrated their spirituality throughout their lives and this common faith has been an important part of cultivating so many of their strong friendships.

Diane loved living near the ocean and the natural world. It was this love of nature that became the subject of so much of Diane’s art. An accomplished artist in many mediums, Diane loved using watercolor to recreate scenes of nature and surroundings that spoke to her. Birds and beach scenes were often featured in Diane’s paintings. These creations, along with murals she painted, adorn the walls of Diane and Mike’s home and are a lasting gift for her husband and friends, always reminding them of her ability to create beauty all around us.

Diane’s husband Mike struggled throughout his life with epilepsy. However, after a successful epilepsy brain surgery in the late 1980’s, Mike began working as a chaplain for the Long Beach Rescue Mission where men who had lived on the streets were encouraged to reside in this recovery program. During their residence in the program, on Sundays, their families would be welcome to join them in a church service at the mission. At that service Diane began telling stories to the children of the residents, using animal puppets to tell stories of little animals fleeing an evil dark forest and dealing with life issues that many of the children of the Rescue Mission residents had experienced. Diane was encouraged by a friend to publish these stories and in 2022, after her cancer diagnosis and even after entering hospice care, she published these stories in a beautiful book called Abba Domain. This same friend continues to celebrate Diane by telling her stories (with the help of her puppets) to children living in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. An international Christian publishing organization is hoping to publish her book online to make Diane's legacy available in several languages for teachers of children all over the world.

Diane passed away quietly after a long fight with cancer and joins her parents and her brother-in-law (Jack Merritt) and his wife (Deanie Merritt) in Heaven. Diane is survived by her husband Mike, her sister Linda Tolleson, brother-in-law Gary Tolleson, and niece Amy Tolleson, her in-laws Lawson & Sharon Merritt, nieces Laura Merritt & Natasha Merritt and their families and many friends who mourn her loss but rejoice in her homecoming.