Diana Elizabeth Barker

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Diana’s favorite charity LOTS or Lord of the Streets, https://www.lotshouston.org/

Diana Elizabeth Barker

October 4th, 1939 – August 13th, 2026

Diana Elizabeth Barker, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, and friend, passed away peacefully on August 13, 2026, at the age of 86. Her life was one of remarkable adventure, love, family, and an abiding curiosity about the world around her.

Diana was born on October 4, 1939 at home in a small cottage in the English village of Milton, Northamptonshire, just one month after the outbreak of World War II. She was the eldest daughter of Francis Charles Cater and Gladys May Freeman. Her sisters, Margaret and Janet, followed in 1943 and 1946.

Diana's childhood was shaped by the war and the long, difficult postwar years, but she remembered those years with great affection. Her father and grandfather both worked for the railways as Pointsmen, operating the railway points manually from signal boxes. Her father, Charles, was also an accomplished pianist and played in local bands. He was a devoted Leicester City football supporter, a passion he passed on to Diana and which remained with her throughout her life.

The family moved to Leicester, where Diana grew up in a working-class neighborhood filled with what she remembered as "salt-of-the-earth" people—honest, hardworking, and proud. Her childhood memories were filled with simple pleasures: the milkman arriving each morning, the baker delivering bread by horse and wagon, the lamplighter riding his bicycle through the streets to light the gas lamps, and Saturday mornings at the local picture house watching films such as Tarzan. There was no television; entertainment came from the radio, newspapers, music, and one another.

Diana and her sisters were especially close. They played dress-up, sang and danced together, and developed the strong bond that would remain throughout their lives. Their parents were strict and reserved, as was common in that generation, but Diana always knew she was loved. She understood that in her family, love was often expressed through actions rather than words.

Diana attended Melbourne Road Infants School, Charnwood Street School, and Moat Girls' School. A good student, she left school at sixteen and attended Miss Goddard's Secretarial School, where she learned shorthand and typing. Secretarial work was one of the principal career paths available to young women of her generation, and Diana quickly discovered that she was very good at it.

Her first position was as a junior secretary with a hosiery manufacturer in Leicester. She soon advanced to senior secretary, a position that gave her opportunities to travel outside Leicester and stay in hotels she had previously only imagined. She loved experiencing new places and seeing how the “other half” lived.

Diana was also becoming an adventurous young woman. Through her family's railway connections, she traveled by train to seaside resorts in England, where she met people from other parts of the country and developed numerous pen pals. As the postwar years gave way to the excitement of the 1950s and 1960s, she embraced the music and dancing of the era, including the Beatles, although her mother was decidedly less enthusiastic about the band's famously long hair.

In her twenties, Diana's world expanded far beyond England. She accepted an opportunity to work in Switzerland as an English correspondent for a Swiss silk mill. The position took her to a remote village, and after one year, she moved to Zurich and joined Dow Corning. There she learned German, made lifelong friends, developed a wonderful social life, traveled extensively throughout Europe, and learned to ski.

Her time in Switzerland helped establish something that would define Diana for the rest of her life: she was adventurous, independent, and willing to take a chance. After a difficult bout with kidney stones in 1966, however, she decided it was time to return to England and be closer to her family and friends. She joined the Swiss consulting company Knight Wegenstein, which transferred her to its London office in 1967.

Diana loved London. She shared a flat with an Irish girl, Noreen Johnson, who one evening persuaded her to attend a dance at Chelsea Town Hall. Diana went reluctantly.

It was one of the best decisions of her life. That evening she met a “English gentleman” named Paul Winfield Barker. Paul would become the love of her life.

After a whirlwind sixteen-week romance, Paul asked Diana to marry him and to join him on an adventure in East Africa. He had accepted a position with the Kenya Farmers Association in Nakuru, Kenya, where, as a chemist, he would work with farmers and introduce rubber membrane products for water conservation and grain storage. Diana said yes.

On September 2, 1967, Diana and Paul were married at All Saints Church in Sutton Courtenay, a beautiful 700-year-old English village church. It was a fitting beginning for a marriage that would take them across four continents, five countries and through nearly six decades of life together.

Their first great adventure was Kenya. Initially, she taught shorthand and typing in Nakuru High School and later was a secretary for the Kenya National Farmers Union. After two years there, their first son, Matthew Winfield Barker, was born on March 7, 1970. Their second son, Richard Charles Barker, was born in Nairobi on March 20, 1972 who then kept her quite occupied from then on.

After five years in Kenya in 1972, the family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Paul set up a new company.

Diana devoted herself primarily to raising her two sons, while occasionally doing secretarial work in doctors offices. She embraced motherhood and created a loving home for her family during a fascinating and challenging period in South African history.

In 1981, Paul accepted a position in Houston, Texas, to help establish a new plastics company, Gundle Linings. Once again, Diana embraced the adventure. She and Paul moved their family halfway around the world, eventually becoming American citizens and making Houston their home.

1988 was an especially exciting year for Diana when Paul was asked to return to England to establish a European office for his company in London. The family settled in Fetcham, Surrey, beginning what would become one of Diana’s favorite chapters of her life.

Being back in England after 21 years away, brought Diana closer to her extended family and friends, and she treasured the opportunity to spend more time with them. There were many happy occasions, family gatherings, and holiday celebrations that created wonderful memories and allowed everyone to reconnect. One of the highlights was celebrating her and Paul’s 25th wedding anniversary while surrounded by family and friends.

The move also marked an important transition for the children. Their eldest, Matthew, had already left for the University of Texas, while their youngest, Richard, who was 16 at the time, joined his parents in England. He attended the American School at Cobham, giving him the opportunity to experience two very memorable years living and going to school in Surrey.

In the early hours of August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Iraqi forces quickly overran the country, setting in motion the Gulf War and, ultimately, the liberation of Kuwait in February 1991.

For Diana and our family, however, the events of that August were far more personal. Paul happened to be in Kuwait City, where he was staying for one night on business when the invasion began. Diana heard from him the day after the invasion, but then there was silence for another two weeks. For Diana and the rest of the family, those two weeks were filled with unimaginable fear, uncertainty, and worry. But she did get busy. She became busy in helping the Foreign Office log in data of the thousands of British people caught up in the conflict.

After three attempts to escape, Paul finally managed to escape out of Kuwait, crossing the desert to safety. He was reunited with Diana and the family back home in London. It was an enormous relief, but the experience left a lasting impression on all of them. They had come frighteningly close to losing someone they loved.

Following Paul's return, the family spent several weeks together in Galveston, Texas to recuperate. Those weeks became especially meaningful to Diana. After having nearly lost her beloved husband to a war halfway around the world, being together as a family took on a new significance. Time with the people she loved became even more precious.

Diana grew to love Galveston, and it remained a special place in her heart for the rest of her life. In fact, she eventually decided that she wanted her ashes scattered in Galveston Bay—a fitting final connection to a place that had brought her and her family comfort during one of the most frightening chapters of their lives.

The story of Paul’s escape from Kuwait is, in itself, an incredible story of courage, determination, blessing and survival. But for Diana, it was also a profound reminder of just how fragile life can be—and how precious the people we love truly are.

After four wonderful years, Paul was asked to return to Houston, and the family moved back in 1992. By then, Richard had already returned to the United States, following in his brother’s footsteps to attend the University of Texas and eventually he served in the US Navy Submarine Service.

In 1992 the family moved to live in Kingwood, just north of Houston. She and Paul became US Citizens and she was an active member of the Good Shepard Episcopal Church including church activities such as book club, parishioner’s fellowship, and other activities. She was also an active member of the Kingwood Garden Club as she loved to garden. She joined the Daughter’s of the British Empire Charitable Group in 1981 making many lifelong friends and became a member and Regent of the Chapter.

On January 13, 2011, Diana was celebrating a friend’s birthday with Paul at a restaurant in Kingwood when a tragic accident changed her life forever. A neighboring customer’s loaded revolver accidentally fell from his jacket and discharged, striking Diana. The bullet went through the chair and narrowly missed several major organs. She was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas, where she underwent multiple life-saving surgeries.

Afterward, Diana spent three weeks at TIRR Memorial Hermann undergoing intensive rehabilitation. She eventually recovered, although she was left with permanent paralysis in her left leg below the knee. Despite the challenges and the enormous changes this brought to her life, Diana faced her new reality with remarkable courage and determination.

In recognition of her extraordinary recovery and resilience, Diana was named Ben Taub’s Survivor of the Year in 2011—a remarkable achievement considering that Ben Taub is Houston’s major trauma center, treating countless victims of gunshot and knife wounds from across the nation’s fourth-largest city.

At the time, our family never imagined that Diana would have many years ahead of her. But Diana proved us all wrong. She never complained about what had happened to her or about the limitations it left behind, even though she could no longer truly walk normally or fully enjoy one of the things she loved most—gardening.

Instead, she simply adapted and carried on with the situation. She embraced life and gave us another incredible 15 years—15 years that became an unexpected and precious gift to all of us.

None of this would have been possible without Paul and the love, strength, and unwavering support of our small, close-knit family. Together, they helped Diana not simply survive, but continue to live her life with the spirit, grace, humor, and determination that defined her. In many ways, surviving that terrible day was just the beginning of another remarkable chapter in Diana’s life.

Her sons grew up, married, and gave her four grandchildren. Matthew married Kristen Elizabeth Smith in 1995, and together they had Kelsey Elizabeth Barker, born April 16, 2001, and Rachel Lynn Barker, born July 13, 2003.

Richard married Trina M. Bradley, and they had Sarah Elaine Barker, born August 13, 1998, and Andrew Charles Barker, born March 16, 2001.

Diana adored her grandchildren and took immense pride in the people they became. In June of 2025, Diana and Paul moved to the Heights to be closer to both their sons.

In the final days of her life, she was eagerly awaiting the birth of her first great-grandchild, Sarah's baby girl, Emersyn Grace Cherry, who was born on August 14, 2026, just one day after Diana's passing. She also knew that her granddaughter Kelsey was engaged to be married to Quentin Barrial, giving her even more family milestones to look forward to.

Family was, ultimately, the greatest love of Diana's life.

She remained a devoted wife to Paul, a loving mother to Matthew and Richard, a proud grandmother, a cherished sister, and a loyal friend. She carried with her throughout her life the values instilled in her during her childhood in England: hard work, honesty, loyalty, humility, and gratitude for the simple things.

Diana lived through a remarkable period of history. She was born in a little English cottage on the eve of World War II, grew up in postwar Britain, experienced the excitement of the 1950s and 1960s, lived and worked in Switzerland, married her true love after a sixteen-week romance, and followed him to Kenya, South Africa, Singapore and America. She crossed oceans, learned languages, skied in the Alps, raised a family, became a citizen of a new country, and watched her family grow across generations.

But perhaps the greatest measure of Diana's life is not the places she lived or the adventures she experienced. It is the family she built and the love she gave.

She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her, but her memory will live on in her husband Paul, her sons Matthew and Richard, Kristen and her grandchildren Sarah, Andrew, Kelsey and Rachel, her newborn great-granddaughter Emersyn, her sister Margaret, and the many friends and family members whose lives she touched.

Diana's was a life well lived, filled with courage, adventure, love, and family.

And it all began with a little girl born in a cottage in England who was willing to say yes to the adventure of life.

We love and miss her dearly…

A Celebration of Diana’s Life will be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1819 Heights Blvd., Houston, TX 77008, on Saturday, September 19 at 3:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Diana’s favorite charity LOTS or Lord of the Streets, https://www.lotshouston.org/