Diane was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on April 2, 1941. Her father, Albert Giddis, had an electronics repair shop and was a ham radio operator. Her mother, Rolande Giddis, was a homemaker. Diane was the youngest of four. She adored her brother, Roland, and her sisters, Elaine and Andree.
Diane grew up as part of Lowell’s French-Canadian community and was educated in Catholic parochial schools where classes were often taught in French. She excelled academically and was admitted to Barnard University in New York City. She graduated in 1962 and immediately began a career was in publishing.
She worked for Prentice-Hall as an associate editor, then moved up to senior editor (and captain of the baseball team) at Bobbs-Merrill. Over time, she worked on a variety of books, from "The Hospital Experience", a guide for patients and family facing a hospital stay, to "Woman’s Orgasm", written by a nurse and a doctor, which fit into the "Our Bodies, Ourselves" trend at the time. She edited Geoffrey Stokes’s "The Star-Making Machinery", an award-winning book about the music business. (The award ended up in her closet.) She even edited a book with professional boxer Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta, who once told her if anyone ever bothered her, to give him a call.
She edited Kathryn Lance’s first book, "Running for Health and Beauty: A Complete Guide for Women" (1977), which ultimately sold half a million copies and helped kick off a national jogging craze. It also converted Diane into a dedicated runner for the next decade, and Kathryn Lance into a lifelong friend.
Among others, she edited the autobiographies of Lillian Gish and Groucho Marx, and worked with Noel Coward’s partner on a book. There were books about the Directors Guild, comedy and the movies, film anthologies, and reference books.
Diane switched to copyediting in 1981. It turned out she was a natural fit; she had the gift. Initially, she copyedited two airline magazines (for Eastern and United) and then moved to . . . The National Lampoon! It may not have been the most tasteful magazine, but, thanks to Diane, the grammar and spelling were impeccable.
She later joined the staff of Dutton’s Children’s Books, copyediting anything from a young adult book about Lincoln to the bestselling "Walter the Farting Dog series", and everything in between. She was even the official (classic/not Disney) Winnie-the-Pooh copyeditor. Is it “smackeral” or “smackerel”? Diane knew.
Diane loved many things. She loved the written word and helping others communicate more clearly and accurately. She loved Venice, Italy. She loved being a feminist, solid but not dogmatic. She loved New York—once she got to Manhattan, she never lived anywhere else. She loved the museums, the parks, and, of course, the movie theaters.
Movies were the central joy in her life. She was smitten early on, going to the theater with her mother as a toddler. The magic never left. Like a sports fanatic, she had the stats, the history, the stories, and took unlimited delight in getting more. She knew cinema back to the silents.
She had an extensive collection of film magazines, biographies, and reference books, and even wrote two books of her own: "Name the Seven Dwarfs" (Morrow, 1990) and "The Movie Dialogue Quiz Book" (Quill, 1993). She painstakingly verified all the quotes by checking against the movies themselves, years before Google and YouTube were available. For years she hosted lively Academy Awards parties and/or ran Oscar betting pools that also involved something of an online salon with pre- and post- commentary
Diane was an independent soul. She was an erudite enthusiast and could be counted on to be a delightful conversationalist, known and loved for her dry wit, sharp mind, unique voice and perspective.
Diane is survived by her sister, Andree De Champigny, her nieces, Kim Kilchenstein and Kirsten Savinese, her nephew Jon Giddis, her many friends, and, as she liked to say, her “POSSLQ” of three decades, Steve Weller.
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