Obituary published on Legacy.com by The Wood Mortuary, Inc. - Greer on Dec. 9, 2025.
Diane Emily Rodgers Masters, beloved mother, wife, daughter, and friend, left this world for Heaven beyond on December 7th, 2025, as she took her last breath at 11:05pm, held in the love of those who treasured her.
She was the daughter of the late Glen Beatrice Harbin Rodgers and Henry "Rock" Rodgers, and the light of her childhood home in Travelers Rest, where she grew up on rolling farmland that shaped her imagination and her heart.
Diane often spoke of her sweetest memories, her grandmother's fresh pies and lovingly created desserts, long warm days helping on the farm, and playing down by the creek with her little brother, Henry, while their mother ran a full-service salon nearby. Those early years planted in her a lifelong love of beauty, creativity, and simple joys.
Diane was a graduate of Berea High School, where she was in an award-winning band playing clarinet in the Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans. Diane began her working life at Ivy's Department Store in downtown Greenville before attending college. She married her husband, Jacob Glenn Masters, and later worked at Woven Electronics, putting together computer components with precision and pride. Her life changed forever when she welcomed her daughter, Gina, her one and only child and her greatest joy. After the heartbreaking loss of her brother Henry, a sorrow that left an imprint on her gentle heart, Diane dedicated herself even more fully to nurturing others. She chose to stay home to raise Gina and opened her own daycare, where she poured love, patience, and spiritual tenderness into countless children. Nurturing little ones was not simply a job to her, it was a calling, one of the sacred purposes of her life.
Those who knew Diane also knew her extraordinary artistic eye. She cooked holiday meals worthy of memory, filling her home with warmth, laughter, and the aromas of her incredible dishes. Her holiday decorations were legendary, beautiful enough to rival the Biltmore and her flair for interior design brightened every room she touched. Fashion was another of her talents; Diane dressed beautifully and confidently, wearing her signature high heels well into her 70s.
She was beautiful, hysterically funny, quick-witted spirit sharp, vibrant, and unforgettable. Even as she lived with Alzheimer's Disease, her humor blossomed in surprising ways, and her joy revealed itself in music and movement. She found comfort and happiness listening to The Rolling Stones, The Bee Gees, Foreigner, Fleetwood Mac, and classical music, dancing with pure delight until her body could no longer allow it. Remarkably, even as the disease progressed, she never forgot her family. She called each by name, laughed with them, and continued giving the warmth of her presence until her final days.
Diane loved animals deeply and welcomed strangers with the same warmth she gave her closest friends. She was preceded in death by her beloved little dog, Scruffy, and she leaves behind the grand-pets who brought her endless joy: two German shorthaired pointer grand-dogs, Arlo and Walker, and two grand-cats, Francisco and Isla.
Today, she is reunited at last with her precious brother, Henry, whose absence she carried tenderly throughout her life.
Diane leaves behind a legacy woven with love, kindness, creativity, and laughter, a legacy that lives on in every life she touched, and most profoundly in the life of her daughter, her heart's greatest devotion and the center of her world
Diane requested a celebration of her life, the date to be determined.
Memorials may be made to Greer Community Ministries, PO Box 1373
Greer, South Carolina 29652 or
Alzheimer's Association, 123 West Antrim Drive, Greenville, South Carolina 29607.
Online condolences may be made to www.thewoodmortuary.com.