Diana E. Mccomb

Diana E. McComb – July 2 1953 – February 7, 2024

The French writer Anais Nin once said, “Our life shrinks or expands in proportion to our courage,” and it is with courage that Diana McComb lived her life, and faced her mortality.

Diana was born on July 2, 1953, to Bessie (McGuire) and Donald Brown.  After graduating from Newfield High School in 1971, Diana courageously packed up and went off to college, to the University of Tennessee, from which she graduated with a Bachelor's in Education. Her desire to help people improve their lives, coupled with her courageous nature, led her to join the Peace Corps, where she would go to Jamaica and work with people facing many different challenges.  Her time in Jamaica deepened her understanding of and compassion for people from different races and cultural backgrounds, and further equipped her to pursue her chosen field of Social Work.  In fact, when Diana was in her early 40s she returned to college at the University of Buffalo, where she would earn her Master's in Social Work.  Over the course of her Social Work career, she would work at DSS, Alcohol and Drug Council and the Bath VA, retiring in 2017.

In the 1980s, while working at her family's business, McGuire Gardens, she met a hard-working landscaper, and while it took them a while to figure out what they were doing as a couple, Diana and Billy McComb would marry in 1985 and welcome their daughter, Angeline, in 1988. Angeline would become the center of their lives, would excel in school, in sports, and would bring great pride to her family by becoming a nurse and the mother of two daughters. After her cancer diagnosis in December of 2023, Diana said that her wish for her granddaughters was for them to live in a world of acceptance, equality and inclusion, and that she was so grateful that Angeline had found, in Frank, a wonderful partner and father to their daughters.

Diana was predeceased by her husband, Billy, her mother, Bessie McGuire, her great Aunt Elsie and Uncle Paul and many other loved ones. She is survived by her daughter, Angeline (Frank Hodge), her granddaughters Nyia and Zayde, her brothers, Stephen and Randy (Debi) Brown, her niece Melissa McComb, her friend of 30 years Penny, the workout crew at FLX, her friends at Kohl's, Earlybird Farms, and her cherished friend, Sharon Ballard, who put her own life on hold to come from Maine and stay with Diana for the last several weeks. Diana’s book of life has come to an end but in her memory we hope you continue to create new chapters in your book of life. She said it best “crisis is an opportunity for change and adding people to your life never gets old.”

Calling hours will be held at Bangs Funeral Home in Ithaca on Friday, February 16th from 11 am until 1 pm, with a celebration of her life to follow at 1 pm.  Diana asked that contributions in her memory be made to your local SPCA chapter, or local animal shelter.