Diana Gale Lutz

Diana Gale Lutz, age 79 years of Edwardsburg, Michigan, mother, grandmother, aunt, life-long Christian, artist, and John Wayne fan died peacefully at 6:56 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29, 2023 with her caregiver at her bedside in Corewell Health Niles Hospital following an extended illness.

She was born on January 1, 1944 in Columbia, South Carolina to Dale E. and M. Maxine (Bassett) Miller, moved with her family as a young child to Syracuse, Indiana, and was graduated from high school in Syracuse.  She was employed at the former Miles Laboratories and was retired from its successor, the Bayer Corporation.

Diana was baptized as a teenager at the Syracuse Baptist Church.  After moving to Edwardsburg, she was a member for over 25 years at the Diamond Cove Missionary Church near Cassopolis, Michigan, and for the past several years has been attending Volinia Baptist Church south of Decatur, Michigan.

In her youth, Diana was an active equestrienne, owning a horse which she showed in area competitions.  Perhaps that love of horses encouraged her interest in movies about the west, especially those movies starring “The Duke”, Mr. John Wayne.  More recently, she has developed her artistic side using prepared outline art and crayons, with which she was quite proficient in-spite of the progressive tremors of Parkinson’s Disease.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and by a brother, Robert Dale “Butchie” Miller who died on May 10, 2022.

Surviving family includes a daughter, Jayne (& Quinn) Kohler; grandchildren Courtney Lynn Kohler and Austin Dale Kohler; a nephew, Richard (& Carrie) Miller and niece Tina (& Matthew) Donovan, several great and grand nieces and nephews;  her caregiver through her final years, Marie Wolfe; and Diana’s longtime pet companion cat, “Kitty”.

A memorial service honoring the memory of Diana Lutz will be held on Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon at the Diamond Cove Missionary Church with Pastor Charlie Keller officiating and Head Deacon Earl Proctor assisting.  A fellowship time will follow in the west wing of the building.  Interment will be private, at the Syracuse Cemetery.  Arrangements were completed at the Halbritter Wickens Funeral Home, 615 East Main Street in Niles.  Online memories may be left at:

www.halbritterwickens.com

Psalm 90 states that our lives are ‘threescore and ten, and by reason of strength, fourscore’, and Diana – by strength – was within months of those eighty years, using those years well, being very active in her youth, a productive member of society as an adult, and pursuing art in retirement.  Throughout all of those seasons of life, church was a constant along with the fellowship of each congregation, fulfilling the command to love God and love people.