Diane Theresa O'Shea

Diane Hussey O'Shea went home to our Lord on July 24th, 2025, with family at her side, and completely at peace.
There was never a more positive person on this earth than Diane. All at once our Mom, Aunt, Grandma, Nana, our Mami Diane. Our neighbor, our ally, our travel companion, our card-playing friend who simply loved a good-natured gathering, who treasured a view of the water -- the ocean, a river, a lake, a pond -- and who put more good into the world than she ever asked from it.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, July 31st, 2025 at Corpus Christi Church in Chatham Township, New Jersey. Burial to follow at Somerset Hills Memorial Park in Basking Ridge.
In grateful acknowledgement of the desire to express sympathy, the family asks you to consider a donation to Eva's Village, in support of those struggling with hunger, homelessness, substance use disorders, and mental health challenges.
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Diane Theresa Hussey was born to Inez Geraghty Hussey and Clarence Francis Hussey on March 10th, 1936. With her older siblings Robert Conway Hussey and Mary Lou Hussey (later Grinnell), Diane grew up in Larchmont, New York, attending St. Augustine's church and their parochial school. Diane graduated from The Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich in 1954 with high marks, and made her society debut at the Westchester Country Club Cotillion that same year. At a time when graduation from a top school or an appearance at a debutante ball was often a road to finding a husband, Diane opted to chart her own path. She enrolled at the Katharine Gibbs School, learning secretarial and business skills that would carry her through her various careers as an assistant, and then a manager, and a consultant. Diane worked for a time for Sherman Billingsley, for his television show that was run though his larger business, the legendary Stork Club, where her job was to interview upcoming guests before appearing on the show; her instructions were to bring any "tricky" questions before airtime to Billingsley's personal attorney, who was none other than Roy Cohn.
Diane's friendly manner disarmed other people, sometimes literally. One morning when looking out her kitchen window, she saw former US President Harry Truman on his morning walk, leaving from his residence at the Carlyle Hotel. She eagerly went to the window, stuck out her arm and began waving like mad. The Secret Service officers assigned to the former President had a momentary lapse of judgement, and instead of drawing weapons on a potential assassin, smiled at the pretty redhead waving from a tiny alleyway window, allowing the Mr. Truman to wave back. It became a regular greeting for both of them, for a while. "Morning, Mister President!" Diane would shout from her window. "Morning, Ma'am!"
She used this same charming manner to make her way across Europe when traveling. She'd manage to save enough money to travel for a month, but would wind up staying for three because she'd get a letter from her family that a friend was going to be in Paris, and she could stay there, and then that friend would have a good friend in Brussels, and she could stay with their family for a week, and so on. Diane made the well-known "Europe on $5 a Day" look like a big-budget trip.
In 1961, a friend threw a party where she met one Daniel Gerard O'Shea. Handsome and learned, Dan, previously of Brooklyn and the Bronx, taught at Bishop DuBois High School in Harlem. When she and her roommate were throwing a party a few weeks later, Diane saw her roommate's list of invitees, and was thrilled to see Dan's name on the list. She made sure to put a star next to his name so her roommate would invite him. Diane and Dan married at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 1962. "The funny thing is, we were so broke we had to borrow a car to get back to my apartment for the reception. But I'd have married your father if I'd had to go home on a bicycle. I was that crazy about him." They were married for thirty-six years, raising four children (David Daniel, Catherine Marie, Brian Edward and Kerry Elizabeth) in Westchester County.
Diane's work outside the home resumed in the late 1970s, and she eventually became manager of what became the most successful office in the American Dental Centers group. She later became a consultant for the company, traveling from office to office, teaching staff processes for successful patient recall, prompt billing, and compliance.
In retirement, Diane and Dan moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which they loved. Dan died of cancer in 1998, and Diane moved in subsequent years to Houston, Texas, Columbus, Ohio, Lake Worth, Florida and, ultimately, New Providence, New Jersey.
Diane found card games in every community, or initiated new, lively games at senior centers in every state. Her beloved senior center group in Ohio was where she started a travel group, Wayfaring Women, and perfected her Canasta game ("I think the long winter meant we had more time to play cards!"), and where she lived with her (now-departed) daughter Kerry and son-in-law Jim Stone and their mighty dog, Sophie.
After her daughter Kerry's unexpected passing in 2013, and Diane's subsequent move to Florida, she made some of her dearest friends yet, and kept busy by joining the board of directors for the nearly 900-unit condominium where she lived. Between cards and the many meetings and ongoing matters of the board, Diane still somehow found time to travel. She traveled with a dear friend for years, from ocean to ocean, by plane and boat, on foot and on trains. "We had twenty years of wonderful travel and the best laughs."
Having a new, serious diagnosis in 2024, she trusted her daughter who said, "I know a guy in Jersey." That "guy" was an excellent hematologist, who knew of her prior 4-months-to-live prognosis, and said, "We'll try to do better than that." Diane's life lasted 15 months from that day, where she spent time closer than ever to her grandchildren hearing all about their days, and attending every event she could. You could find Diane anywhere from having brunch at the Oldwick General Store in Tewksbury to having steamers at Spike's Seafood in Point Pleasant or at the wonderful Chatham Senior Center, where she made yet more friends, and, of course, played Canasta. "I can't believe it; there's a most LOVELY crew of card-playing ladies," she said, feeling once again that she'd found home.
She was the beloved wife of the late Daniel O'Shea; the loving mother of David Daniel O'Shea and his wife Julia Enzer O'Shea, Catherine Marie Kells and her husband Matthew Kells, Brian Edward O'Shea and his wife Karima Touati and the late Kerry Stone and her husband the late James Stone. She was the cherished grandmother of the late Lauren Elizabeth O'Shea, and of Eric Lawrence O'Shea and his fiancée Jay Jones, Lindsay Rebecca O'Shea, Fiona Rachel Kells, Mary Rose Linda Kells, Emma Touati and her husband Dylan Tehahe and Owen O'Shea. She is also survived by her great-grandchildren, Avery O'Shea and Lyana Tehahe.