Diana Dickinson

Diana Walter Dickinson, 87, a resident of Tappahannock, Virginia, passed away on February 15, 2019. Diana was born on March 6, 1931 in Washington, D.C. to Evelyn Preble Walter, an artist and modern dancer, and William Francis Walter, Jr., a prominent landscape painter. She is a granddaughter of Edward Alexander Preble, noted American naturalist, explorer and conservationist. She was preceded in death by her husband, Fielding Lewis Dickinson, Jr. and her beloved son, Gerard Alexander Dickinson. She is survived by her children Fielding Lewis Dickinson, III of Loretto, Virginia and Lisa Dickinson Mountcastle (Kenneth) of Alexandria, Virginia. Surviving grandchildren are Jerry Dickinson (Sally), Cameron Dickinson, Rebecca Hundley (Chris), Fielding Dickinson, IV (Kate), Holt Mountcastle, Kemble Mountcastle and numerous great grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother Edward P. Von Walter (Johanna) of Loretto.

A graduate of Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington, D.C. and Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She received her Master’s in Studio Art from Virginia Commonwealth University. Diana was a beloved art teacher at Essex County High School for 10 years. Many of her former students nursed her lovingly in her final days at Essex House Assisted Living Community in Tappahannock.

Diana was a true renaissance woman. She was an artist, an opera singer (a finalist for the New York Metropolitan Opera as a soprano), and a master gardener who found many hours of joy working in her garden at the Dickinson family home, Wheatland, in Loretto. Her garden was featured in the July/August, 1996 issue of Southern Living magazine. One of the founders of the Rappahannock River Valley Association, she was a conservationist who loved the Rappahannock River and the Middle Peninsula. A beautiful flower arranger, she was also a founder of the Middle Peninsula Garden Club a Garden Club of Virginia club.

Diana is remembered as a wonderful mother and doting grandmother who always found time to read to her children and grandchildren before bed and who delighted all by spontaneously breaking out in an in an interpretive dance at the drop of a hat or singing Italian opera in a crowded elevator. She leaves a lasting legacy of bringing beauty to everything and everyone she touched in the forms of art, music and flowers.

A memorial service will be held at 11am on Saturday, March 16, at Vauter’s Episcopal Church in Loretto, Virginia. Private inurnment will follow in the family cemetery at Wheatland. Faulkner Funeral Homes, Marks-Bristow Chapel, Tappahannock, Virginia is assisting the family.

In lieu of sending flowers, donations in her honor can be made to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (cbf.org) or Scenic Virginia (scenicvirginia.org)