Diane Sanders

Diane Sanders passed away unexpectedly but peacefully on December 26, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah while visiting her son Dr. Karl Sanders and his family. Diane is survived by Karl, his wife Dr. Natalie Sanders, their daughter Ruby and son Travis, and Karl's son Sam Lawlor Sanders. Diane is also survived by her son Curtis Sanders of Aspen, Colorado and his wife Catherine, their daughter Lily Louise, and their son Edward, as well as Diane's nephew David Sanders of Kirkwood, Missouri, his wife Su and son John Alan, and Diane's niece Susan Bridwell of Fernandina Beach, Florida, and husband Craig, and daughters Karissa and Jenny. Diane was preceded in death by her parents, brother, and her husband, Dr. Jean Alan Sanders.

Diane was born May 11, 1936 in Wichita, Kansas. Diane was the daughter of S.T. (‘Shack’) Sandberg, the son of Swedish immigrants and originally of Denver, Colorado, and Florence Louise (‘Tiss’) Clarke of Centerville, Iowa. Tiss was one of five daughters of Joe Clarke, who was from a family of English immigrants, and who owned and operated a coalmine in Centerville. Starting in 1928, Shack worked at the Wichita Eagle until his retirement in 1973, when he and Tiss moved to Lawrence to be near Alan, Diane, and their young sons. Diane was the younger sister of Joseph Theodore Sandberg, her loving but sometimes diabolical older brother, and whose wife Sue became the sister that Diane had always longed for.

Although Shack and Tiss's move to Wichita in 1928 took them away from their respective close-knit families, Diane and Ted spent many vacations and holidays in Colorado and Iowa with their extended families. Diane remained close to both of her extended families all of her life, passing along her love and appreciation of family to both of her sons, and always spending Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with one of the extended families.

Growing up in depression and World War II-era Wichita made Diane humble, tough, and thrifty. The family's modest home at 418 South Hillside only had two bedrooms. When Diane and Ted became too old to share a bedroom, Shack and Tiss slept on a pull-out sofa bed in the living room each night so that Diane and Ted could each have their own bedrooms. During and shortly after the war, most luxuries, and some essentials, were rationed and could only be purchased with coupons saved up over many months. One of Diane's Christmas memories as a small girl was of Tiss saving sugar coupons for nearly all of 1946 so that she could make a sugary confection called ‘divinity’. The divinity was to be the crown jewel of the holiday treats for the 1946 family Christmas get-together in Iowa. The coupons were saved up, the sugar was purchased, and the divinity was made. The family packed up and left Wichita for the long drive to Iowa. When the family stopped along the way and left their dog in the car, it provided the perfect opportunity for the perfect crime. The dog helped himself to an early Christmas present by eating the divinity. Although this episode of family lore was nearly unbearable for Tiss, the coup de grace came when after the family got back on the road and the dog vomited all of the divinity in Ted's lap, where it mostly remained for the remainder of the trip north.

However, the most lasting impact of all the hardship, saving and scrimping of Diane's early childhood was her pathological need as an adult to keep leftovers in a cryogenic state of suspended animation for years, and her inability to throw away free pens, wet naps, Kleenex, plastic bags, twisties and plastic containers.

As a young girl, Diane was an exceptional student, and although she did not have the means to attend the elite colleges that she dreamed of as a girl and could have attended, in 1954 she took the train from Wichita to Lawrence and moved into the Sellards Scholarship Hall at the University of Kansas (also, an elite college). Diane graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bacteriology in 1958 and a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Medical Technology in 1959 with an eye on a career in laboratory medicine or research. While attending KU, Diane was introduced to a first-year medical student named Alan Sanders. Diane and Alan were married in 1958, and after graduation, Diane and Alan moved to Kansas City so that Diane could help support Alan with work and Alan could complete medical school. Alan and Diane then moved on to Wichita where Alan completed his residency in 1965.

With the birth of Karl in 1962, Diane set aside her career ambitions and became a full-time mother, a role which she kept even after both her boys had moved on and had children of their own. When Diane and Alan settled in Lawrence in 1965, just two weeks the birth of second son Curtis, Diane finally established the happy, meaningful, and good life that she would live for the next 59 years, first at 2309 Princeton Drive and then at 2820 Tomahawk Drive. Both homes were happy and loving and had large flower and vegetable gardens. Gardening was always Diane's greatest pleasure. Diane and Alan joined Plymouth Congregational Church as soon as they moved to Lawrence, which soon became foundational to both of their lives.