Memorial Service Announced for Diana Lathrop Bouchard of Lyme

Diana Lathrop Bouchard, 77, formerly of Lyme, CT, passed away on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013 in Nashua, New Hampshire following a stroke.  Diana was a “Lady for all seasons” and a bold adventuress.  One friend likened her to her namesake the goddess Diana, who ceaselessly wandered and searched the world’s greater forest.

Born in New London, she lived in Niantic, Lyme (Hamburg), and graduated from Mary A. Burnham (MA) 1954 following The Williams Institute, New London.  She first worked in Public Relations at Cypress Gardens, Orlando, and later with Multicon in Fort Lauderdale.  In the early 70s she returned as a principal at Lathrop Real Estate, Old Lyme, when she also joined the staff of theARTgallery magazine in Essex as Associate Editor.  She was also a graduate of the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Boston.  She graced many a community with cheer and humor.

When not charming the business world she ably nourished a family.  Once family obligations were completed, she pursued serious academic goals including Biology at Connecticut College.  Her mind was ever open to the unseen and unconsidered.  The beach (especially Cape Cod) had always been a place of refuge for her, a source of poetic inspiration and scientific fascination.  She would collect such oddities as the egg case of a horseshoe crab and ship them off to her son’s elementary classroom.

Finally giving in to decades fighting one of the very first cases of Lyme Disease, she retired.  Yet her spirit was not dampened after moving to Nashua, NH.  In her final years in Nashua, she attended classes at Rivier University, honing her writing craft and even finding herself as the only woman in a physics class.

With the encouragement of her writing peers, three of her submissions to the writing magazine, Dawn, were accepted for publication.  In collaboration with her sister, Adriana Lathrop Jahna, she delved into genealogical studies that documented a trail of descendants in this country back to 1620 and the arrival of the Mayflower.  When she wasn’t dabbling in the literary or visual arts, “Dede” was glued to late-night Coast to Coast radio, intrigued by theories that explained everything from aliens to ghosts to neutrinos.  Diana explored that vast forest nearly until the day of her death.

Born June 23, 1935 in New London, Diana was the daughter of the late Robert Hayden and Diana Marsh Lathrop, of Old Lyme, CT.  The family lived at Old Black Point, Niantic, until 1950, before moving to the village of Hamburg.

She is survived by two sons, John Russell, of Portland, Oregon, and Robert Bouchard, of Waterford, Connecticut.  Her third and youngest son, Douglas Bouchard, recently of Virginia Beach, Virginia, passed away shortly after her death.  She leaves behind four grandchildren, Carrie and Renee Russell, and Sara and Adrian Bouchard.  She is also survived by her brothers, Robert Lathrop, of Louisville, Colo., and Sheldon Lathrop, of Amherst, N.H.  By just a few months, she was predeceased by her sister, Adriana Lathrop Jahna, to whom she was very close.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, Oct. 18, at the First Congregational Church of Lyme, in Hamburg, Connecticut.  A graveside internment for immediate family will be held at 10 am.