DIANE DEBAUCHE

Diane is a girl I met in 4th grade. We both had Mrs. Schmidt together. For quite awile that year, she sat right behind me. I remember telling her once that she looked weird. She kind of shook her head with a "people in glass houses" look on her face. But despite that little exchange, we generally got along.

Diane lived in my neighborhood. So we occasioanlly would cross paths outside of school. I think she had a little brother named Tim. Tim used to come around from time to time, and try to hang out with the "older" kids. Diane was usually sent to bring him back home.

In 5th grade, I believe Diane had Mr. Tisler. I had two friends in that class - Doug Wall and Chris (Lohr) Storlie. They used to make fun of her by saying, "Diane De-Seed, Diane De-Bush, Diane De-Tree, Diane De-Oak." Clever? I don't know.

I never had much contact with Diane as the years went by. But after I got into that mess with school vandalism, I was forced to get a paper route. And then I was at Diane's house everyday. On the surface, I think a lot of people would describe her family as white trash. They lived in a small house, and had about 80 people living there. I think they had multiple dogs too. But actually, their family was pretty friendly. Although I don't think they tipped much.

In either our sophomore or junior year, Diane got pregnant. And she gave birth. Now teen pregnancy is generally frowned upon in our society. I can't argue with that. Most girls wouldn't choose to become pregnant. But perhaps Diane did. Because in our senior year, she did it again! Yes, if I'm not mistaken, Diane had not one, but two kids before she'd finished high school. Dave Svatek told me a rumor that she didn't know who the father of the second one was - that it was one of two people. I don't know if that's true or not.

I must give major kudos to Diane though. Despite having multiple children, she stuck with school, and did graduate with us. That's very impressive! Most girls in her place would probably drop out. So good for her.

Diane's senior sweatshirt said "Ma" on the back. I found that to be a bit tacky.

Diane got married not long after graduation. She became Diane Kuklinski. I ran into her and her husband all the time. They were regular visitors to the video store. Now, I could be wrong about this. But I seem to recall her husband getting arrested or cited for domestic violence. Again, I'm not 100% positive of this. But I do seem to recall reading it in the "daily log" of the paper. And I can say for sure that from time to time, Diane would come into the store with marks or bruises on her. From that point on, I always felt funny about renting to them. Because I find such acts to be utterly despicable.

Today it looks like Diane is in the process of divorce. In fact, it looks like it may have been finalized earlier this month. As far as I can tell, Diane still lives in Two Rivers.

UPDATE - 6/18/07 - Thanks to Shannon Koch for providing this photo of Diane from graduation day, June 4th, 1989. Ellen Dawidowich is on the left.