Diane Arment, age 81

Diane Fay Mannering, the oldest child of Guy M. and Theda L. (Paulsen) Mannering was born April 25, 1937 in Smith Center, KS and died on Palm Sunday, April 14, 2019 at the age of 81.
Diane married Frank L. Arment on November 13, 1955. To this union were born four daughters; Susan (Andy) Heller, Kathy (Dennis) Beckmann, Amy (John) Timmons and Nancy (Johnny) Monroe.
Farming was in Diane's blood. She began farming for her Dad and Bill Barry when she was still in school. She rode that red bellied Ford over many acres. When she married, the color of the tractor changed, but she kept farming. There were times that she left the kids playing on one end of the field while she ran the tractor.
Diane drove the trucks during harvest and she ran the silage cutter during silage harvest. Her love, however, was the cows. She worked out a system in the 1960s to track all of the cows and their calves (pre-computers) so she knew how many calves a cow had which sire was used and any other pertinent information about the cow and calf. She could tell you without looking which cow was related to another cow and how they were related. Diane loved the herd they built, especially with TC Ranch bulls. She could be seen at the auction elbowing Frank to keep bidding on a bull she wanted.
The Anchor A Farm that Frank and Diane built together was her pride and joy.
Diane had an inquiring mind. She could often be found with her head down looking for treasures. She found Native American pottery shards and arrow heads in fields and roads around the farm. She unearthed a young Mosasaurus skeleton and painstakingly pieced it together.
One thing Diane regretted was not attending college. Because of that, she attended night school and took a couple of courses from Kansas University. She proudly graduated with honors from Cloud County Community College with an Associate's Degree. Physics was one of her favorite classes.
Diane attended Smith Center High School and was editor of the school newspaper. Later on she wrote the Reamsville column. Her wit made the column lively. She also wrote poetry and loved to recite poetry, often while digging musk thistles in the creek with a daughter. It made the time pass more pleasantly.
Wilma Grass taught Diane how to sew. Diane went on to sew numerous school wardrobes for her four daughters. She was a perfectionist and beautifully sewed four wedding gowns and the bridesmaid and mother-of-the bride dresses for four weddings as well as prom and other special occasion clothes.
Diane had a green thumb. She had a jungle of green in her home and in her younger years raised large gardens and canned, so she could feed her family. One of her favorite accomplishments, was the year she and a daughter had a huge garden together and canned 700 quarts of food.
Diane knew the Lord as her personal Savior and was baptized into the Christian Faith. She read her Bible daily. It was important to her that she raise her daughters to know Jesus as she did. She faithfully took them to the Reamsville church for worship, Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. Diane taught Sunday school and VBS. She also completed the Menninger Bible Class. In her Bible was found the phrase "Our children are our only possessions we can take to Heaven with us".
Diane was proceeded in death by her husband, Frank and her parents.
Left to celebrate her life are her daughters Susan (Andy) Heller of Hunter, KS, Kathy (Dennis) Beckmann of Mankato, KS, Amy (John) Timmons of Smith Center, KS and Nancy (Johnny) of Smith Center, KS, fourteen grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren.

Visitation

Friday, April 19, 2019
1:00PM - 2:00PM

Simmons-Rentschler Mortuary
116 W. First Street
Smith Center, KS 66967

Celebration Of Life Services

Friday, April 19, 2019
2:00PM

Simmons-Rentschler Mortuary
116 W. First Street
Smith Center, KS 66967

www.simmons-rentschler.com

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA