Diana Fivey

July 9, 1927 - May 30, 2021

Diana Fivey had a way of making a lot from a little. Born to immigrant parents in Brooklyn long before it was a destination, and just two years before the Great Depression, she had the important things going for her: a sharp, curious mind, innate courage, a sense of humor, and resilience. From her father, Nathan Oxhorn, she inherited a fiercely positive attitude, which she maintained to the end. Her optimism led her to often say she lived a “charmed” life.

She went from high school to Brooklyn College at 16, and from New York to San Francisco at 23. Always politically active and a passionate believer in unions, she would build a career in labor relations that began at a seafarers union in New York, moving across the country to AFTRA-SAG (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild) in San Francisco. She later represented the California Nurses Association, often negotiating for long hours in tense rooms to avoid a strike. Eventually she became the first woman appointed to the Mediation and Conciliation Service of the State of California.

Diana had several friendships that lasted longer than the average lifespan. Their talk was never small, but there was laughter too. Four of these friends went on an annual pilgrimage to the Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival well into their eighties. With others, Diana shared season tickets to the San Francisco Ballet and Symphony, ACT, Berkeley Rep and Cal Shakes, rarely missing a performance until the last two years.

Perhaps because of her modest upbringing during the depression, she was a proud and active Democrat who supported workers rights and the dignity of those less fortunate. She was forthright and well respected by those she encountered in both business and personal relationships. She was born in a coldwater flat but would grow up to live in a grand San Francisco Victorian and a newly built Castro Valley Eichler. These houses may have inspired her midlife avocation for serially remodeling diamonds in the rough, in Piedmont and Orinda, on shoestring budgets before there was HGTV to show us how. The “afters” were always warm, inviting places for the whole family to enjoy her worldclass French-toast (orange juice and cinnamon in the batter) Sunday brunches. Meanwhile, she enjoyed two marriages, first to Heywood Fivey and later Bruce Poyer. From these, three children, (like her, all of them left-handed), seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Diana never failed to comment that she had the greatest children and family ever.

A large, close family will remember Diana --”Bubbie”-with great affection, including Lynn Korwatch (Larry), Dan Fivey (Heidi), Jenny Poyer Ackerman (Randy), and their children: K.C. Korwatch; Sam, Max and Scarlett Fivey; and Alex, Nathan and Caroline Ackerman. The family is profoundly grateful for the skilled and loving caregivers at the Welcome Home senior residence in Alamo, without whom the pandemic year would have been impossibly hard but because of whom, we could be together.