A lifelong Mustang, businesswoman and cornerstone of the community July 1, 1945 – August 29, 2025
By Ruby Vera
How does one start to put into words how one person can effect and affect so many in a very short time on this earth. Well, Dianna was one of these type of people, always with that smile, making you feel like you were the most important person at that very moment you were speaking with her, and she was the first to be there for you – no matter what. I have tried to remember what all she brought to this community – during her school years, marriage, and as a business woman. There is not enough space to do her justice, but I am going to try.
Dianna, excelled in all she set her mind to do. A lifelong MUSTANG from the 1st grade to her graduation in 1963. She bled Blue and White. I am going to focus on her High School years – where she was a “A and A/B” student, and as a freshman made the Girls Basketball team – then called the “Palominos.” She was in the Future Homemakers of America; a Majorette in the Rancheretts (before there was a Mustang Band); and was Queen of the Fall Festival. This set a pattern of her involvement throughout the four years in High School. She was a class officer for three of her high school years; she was voted Miss Mustang in 1962; Senior Favorite 1963; FFA Sweetheart and so on and so on, One of her favorite things she loved to do was twirl a baton. In 1962 she joined the Brand New “Natalia Mustang Band under the direction of Mr. Richard Cortez and played the trumpet. Dianna was one of the original Majorette’s for the Natalia Mustang Band.
In addition to all her other school activities add – Editor of the School Newspaper “The Stirr-up”, homecoming Queen, and lettered all four years in Basketball and was Captain that year.
She then married Charles Brown Jr and went to work at “Brown’s Grocery”. I can still hear her voice when you called “ always so distinctive – almost like a “little song” and no matter who was calling – you could actually hear her smile over the phone. I don’t ever remember a time when Dianna was not at the store – even when she became a mom to Tiffany and Chuck. She was always there – from the time they opened until they closed.
Dianna will be missed by all of us – I just wish I could have told her before she passed into her Eternal Life, how very much she was loved by the entire community. Let this serve me as a reminder to let the folks who have brought so much into your life know “just how much they have done to bring a smile to your face and make your heart a little lighter.”
