Community mourns loss of Chesnut

The Vermilion community is mourning the loss of a local woman whose love of history helped craft the city’s identity.

Candles arranged in the outline of a heart and a sign reading “We will miss you” reflected the feelings of more than three dozen people who came out on July 16 to remember Diane Chesnut, 81. She died July 12 at the Cleveland Clinic.

In 1970, Chesnut and her husband, Don, helped organize committees that formed Vermilion’s Harbour Town 1837 Historic District to promote history and downtown revitalization of the city.

Chesnut grew to influence and promote travel and tourism for Lorain County, Erie County and Ohio.

She loved Vermilion and cared for several generations of people who also loved the city history — or scaring people. To raise money, the Friends of Harbour Town operated the Old Haunted Mill and haunted houses in the Old State Street School and a nearby cornfield.

“She was like a grandma to a lot of us,” said Kenneth Baughman of Vermilion. He first met Chesnut at age 14 as one of the original volunteers of the haunted mill in 1978. “She was the best of everything we always wanted to have.”

The vigil included recollections about Chesnut and other tributes were posted online.

“We’re family — we’re not an organization,” said the Rev. Lowell Whitten, who has joined the leaders of Friends of Harbour Town 1837.

Family and friends already were in mourning this month because Don Chesnut, 83, died March 17. Diane and Don Chesnut were graduates of the Vermilion High School class of 1953 and were married for 61 years.

The memories caused feelings of heartbreak and of pride, said the Chesnuts’ daughter, Deb Hansen of Vermilion, who attended with her sister, Denise Fahrney of Huron, and their husbands.

“Her dedication to every one of you was to make this place a better place for everyone,” Hansen said.

“As I read the things that you say about her, it breaks my heart, but it also makes me proud of what she did for every one of you to make a difference in your life,” Hansen said. “All she cared about was to make a difference in your life and in this community’s life. So I thank you for this tribute and this honor that you have bestowed upon her.”

Gina Terry, 27, recounted how she first met Chesnut as a wideeyed 11-year-old peering at people dressed in black for the Old Haunted Schoolhouse.

“And then there’s this little old lady in the middle of all of it,” Terry said. Chesnut’s presence “threw me off,” she said.

But Chesnut quickly recruited Terry to join those assembling boater bags, with literature and items for visitors who arrived in town by Lake Erie and stayed at docks in the city.

“She was always putting something like that together, whether it was for boaters or for the town,” Terry said. She added she still remembers the pattern and her place on the assembly line for Christmas wreaths, another Friends of Harbour Town project.

The haunted houses were clean, safe outlets for youths; drugs and alcohol were not allowed, but the Chesnuts promoted a creative outlet for young people who were passionate about something outside the norm, Terry said.

“Diane was so much more than just everyone’s grandmother,” Terry said. “She was even more than an inspiration. She was Vermilion. She and her husband embodied everything about what that town was.

“We just feel like the town is missing something now,” Terry said.

The family will receive friends 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 17 at Riddle Funeral Home, 5345 South St., Vermilion. The Rev. Jim Peter will officiate a service there.

Anyone who wishes to pay tribute from afar can light a candle, take a photo of it and post that at the Friends of Harbour Town 1837 Facebook page.

“Our goal was to reach a thousand points of light,” Baughman said.

“Her dedication to every one of you was to make this place a better place for everyone.” — Chesnuts’ daughter, Deb Hansen of Vermilion