Diane Delahunty
March 5, 1938 - December 3, 2017
Diane Marie Voss Delahunty was born on March 5th, 1938 to Robert and Lorraine Voss of San Francisco California. My mother was 3rd generation San Franciscan, she was pretty proud of that. She attended school in San Francisco for a few years until her father who worked for RCA Communications was transferred to South Korea. The family spent a few years in South Korea until her father was transferred back to San Francisco. They eventually moved to Pleasant Hill, California where she graduated from high school in 1957. She was accepted to University of Colorado and was looking forward to starting her fall semester. Her father was transferred to Okinawa, Japan in 1957 so until school started, she went out to Okinawa for the summer. At a dinner party one night her plans for the future would change. In May, she met Paul F Delahunty from Bronx, New York he was a young engineer working for Caltex Oil. They met in May, married in August at the US Consulate and in September in the church.
Diane would spend over 30 years in South East Asia and 6 years in the middle east, they would work with the USO to assist any military service people overseas to make them feel at home. Paul and Diane lived in Cambodia in the early 60’s, she traveled to Vietnam to give birth to her oldest son in 1963. Paul was transferred back to Okinawa where Diane would give birth to another son in 1964 and a daughter in 1967. At the end of 1967, Paul was assigned to Saigon, Diane decided she didn’t want to have another child born in Vietnam, so Paul and Diane moved to San Jose California in 1968. Paul returned to Saigon, Vietnam in “bachelor status”. Diane and 4 kids settled in San Jose, California for about 2 years. In 1969 the family would leave California and move to Saigon, Vietnam.
In 1995 Paul and Diane would return to Dallas and settle into the house. They wanted to be close to their kids and their first grandchild, Paul Nicholas born in California in 1993. Diane continued to work her travel business and working as a temp for Delta Dallas, she liked the flexibility that a temp position offered. She and Paul still traveled, she would say that she couldn’t sell a trip or cruise to a destination she had no firsthand experience.
In 2017 I asked her was she ready to start looking for another place she said “no”, one more year. Well that year never came. She was murdered on December 3rd, 2017, her body was found on Tuesday December 5th. In October of 2018 Diane became a great grandmother.
We had decided to go to Australia to see her grandson graduate from college and to celebrate her 80th b-day, her sister would be joining us. I booked the trip the evening of the 4th.
She was murdered on December 3rd 2017.
Diane Marie Voss Delahunty was a sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother, wife and friend.
Nothing I can put into words can relate to what this man has taken from us.
