Diane REKE

1942 - 2022

REKE (Buechele), Diane

Diane died quietly on January 30, 2022, with some family members present at Van Crest Health Care Center in Eaton, OH, after a long struggle with dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

She was born October 4, 1942, in Dayton, OH, of John P. Buechele and Mary M. Grimshaw Buechele. Her Father was in the Army and served during WWII in the Battle of the Bulge. She attended Corpus Christ Elementary School and Julienne Highschool where she graduated in 1960. She really enjoyed attending the alumni get togethers. She married Joseph A. Reke Jr., a 1959 graduate of Chaminade Highschool in 1960. They had three children – Joyce, Joseph III, and Paul. They lived in Dayton for a while but moved to the country to raise their children and have ponies and horses. After about 20 years Joe unfortunately decided he needed to leave, and they got divorced. Diane lived there several more years and started working but could not afford to keep the house. She had to sell it and moved in with her Dad and Mom in Dayton. She worked for many years for Pedro's Mexican Restaurant in Richmond, IN, and then in Fairfield, OH. She had also started volunteering at Boonshoft Museum and after a while they offered her a full-time job. She was closer to home that way and loved her work there. She remained friends with the owners of Pedros and they offered her an old farmhouse to rent that was close to them near Oxford, OH. It would mean an hour drive each way to work and her family tried to talk her out of it, but she loved the country and old houses, so she moved there. She eventually retired from Boonshoft, but she filled her time with art and music events, eating out and drinking wine, traveling, and shopping. She especially liked researching her mother's ancestry who were Quakers and came from North Carolina to Warren and Clinton Counties in OH. She was highly creative and could make simple things into a work of art which she mostly gave away as gifts.

She was the oldest of four children and is survived by the other three: Jane and her husband Marion Zwolski, Margie and her husband Ed Nickle and John and his wife Kim. Also surviving are her daughter Joyce and her husband Jeremy, her son Joseph (Tony) and his wife Lisa, six grandchildren, many great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and a host of friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, her former husband Joe, her son Paul, and two grandchildren.

Her Funeral Mass was celebrated at Visitation Catholic Church in Eaton on Saturday, February 5th, 2022. There was a bad ice storm a couple of days before that, and it prevented some people from coming. She was cremated at a later date.