Diane Ruth Heare

Diane Ruth Comer Heare passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, July 16, 2017, while waiting for her children and grandchildren to arrive for a party.

Diane was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1940, in El Monte, California, to Catherine Diana Jenkins and Lee Martin Comer. She was the youngest of their 4 children.

Diane grew up without a lot and relied on her imagination and creativity to carry her through. As a child, she was an old soul and probably wise beyond her years, most likely due to her friends consisting of older relatives who occasionally lived with the family while she was growing up. Her best friend was her Uncle Major. As a child she moved often between Grand Junction, Colorado and California, until her parents finally settled in Livermore, California.

After graduating from Livermore High School in 1958, Diane moved to Oakland, California, to work for Trans Global Airlines. She loved the idea of traveling with aspirations of being a stewardess, but that dream came to a screeching halt after her first turbulent transcontinental flight. Her feet left the earth only a couple more times over the next 50 years.

In 1960, her on and off again high school love, Dennis Heare, proposed and they were married days before he left to spend a year in Alaska serving the US Coast Guard. Nine months after Dennis returned home, they welcomed their first child, Mike, into the world. Over the next 17 years, Cyndi, Ken, Jen and Tim would complete the family (they all knew they were Diane’s favorite child and told each other often who was the REAL favorite).

Diane dedicated herself to her husband and children as they wound their way across the country for Dennis’s job at IBM. They lived in California, New York, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah over the decades. In 1969, while living in Binghamton, New York, missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints knocked on their door. Her sister and brother had joined the Church when she was a child, so she welcomed them into her home. In 1970, a year after they were baptized, Diane and Dennis were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple.

Diane and Dennis (semi) retired in 1992 and moved to Logan, Utah. Diane loved old things, and loved the stories they told. She took a part-time job at Finders Keepers antique store in downtown Logan, and bought the business a few years later. Diane’s life was always busy with something, and her grandchildren and great grandchildren were always the most important thing she was working on.

Later in life her politics shifted and she proudly became an out-spoken feminist and Democrat. She had finally found the voice she felt too inadequate to share in her youth.

Diane was the epitome of compassion, kindness, humor, tolerance, and love. She would talk to family and friends for hours on end about anything, everything, and sometimes nothing at all. She would cry when someone was hurting. Laugh when things were funny. Dance to be silly, and scold when it was necessary. She was a great artist and her children will always have a piece of her in their homes and in their hearts.

Diane was preceded in death by her parents, Lee and Catherine Comer, sister Barbara Evans, and brothers Ray Comer and Mike Comer. She is survived by her husband Dennis Heare and their five children: Mike Heare of Logan, UT, Cyndi (Geoff) Corey of Bountiful, UT, Ken (Jon) Heare of Logan, UT, Jen (Matt) Barton of Logan, UT, and Tim (Emma) Heare of Centerville, UT. She also leaves behind 14 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and many others she loved and worried for like they were her own.

Funeral services will be held at 12:30 PM on Saturday, July 22, 2017 at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center Street in Logan. A viewing will be held prior to the services at the mortuary from 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.allenmortuaries.net