- Date Of Birth: May 11, 1929
- Date Of Death: December 7, 2015
- State: Montana
Avid reader Diana Boom turned the final page at Peace Hospice in Great Falls on December 7, 2015, surrounded by family. She entered this world on May 11, 1929 in Plankinton, South Dakota as Diana Lee Doling, the daughter of Forrest and Ruth (Allen) Doling. She was a child of the depression; she grew up in a hardscrabble household in Deadwood and Hot Springs. She graduated high school in Hot Springs in 1947, then Jamestown College in North Dakota in 1951.
At Jamestown Diana discovered a new world that included music, Spanish, French, and Ken Boom, whom she married in 1951 after a year of teaching public school music in Minnesota. They moved to Chicago where Ken studied dentistry at Northwestern while Diana worked as a secretary and bore a son, Michael, in 1955.
After graduation, they moved to Ft. Lewis, WA, for two years where Ken served as an army dentist, and Diana bore a daughter, Terri, in 1956. Then it was Montana, a state they’d always loved after a post-college summer working as “savages” in Yellowstone Park. They moved to Wolf Point, then Deer Lodge, and finally settled in Livingston where Ken took over a dental practice and Diana bore a second daughter, Sandra, in 1960. Diana served many years on the school board, then took a degree in library science and worked as a librarian at Park High. In 1964 she was crowned Mrs. Montana.
Diana and Ken divorced in 1976. Diana moved to Helena, where she worked as a librarian at Helena High, then as media specialist for the school system. She married judge Henry Loble in 1980 and enjoyed traveling the world with him. They divorced in 1991.
In 2000 Diana moved to Augusta to be nearer to daughter Terri and three granddaughters. She engaged in spirited battle with insurance companies as volunteer treasurer of the Augusta ambulance service and was secretary of the Augusta Senior Center. In 2013, she moved to an independent living apartment in Cambridge Place in Great Falls where she spent her final years.
Diana was a lively redhead with a lilting soprano voice who passed on her love of classical music to her children. She read incessantly, witnessing hundreds of gruesome murders inevitably solved by clever British detectives. She spent many happy days at the family cabin on the West Boulder River and rode on numerous pack trips through the mountains around Livingston. She loved the beauty of the Montana countryside and loved just as much to share it with friends through her photographs and essays.
Diana loved to grow things. Her gardens often took over her life, and there were never bare patches around any of her homes. She was equally adept at growing relationships with other people through her kindness and unflagging good cheer. She was an integral thread in the warp and woof of our lives, and we miss her terribly.
Diana is survived by a son, Michael Boom (Lynn Morton), of Oakland CA; a daughter, Terri (Tim) Tew and three granddaughters, Erin (Wes) Stockwell, Emily (Cody) Gulick, and Hailey (Rhett) Young all of the Augusta area; a daughter, Sandy (Paul) Kotas and two grandchildren, Carly and Carson Kotas of Carlsbad, CA; two sisters, Pat Trautmann and Peggy Tsunemori; and two great-granddaughters. She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, and an infant brother.
The family will hold a remembrance of Diana at the Augusta Senior Center, 132 Main St. in Augusta on Saturday, December 26, at 2:00 p.m.
