1 Photo
Diane “Didi” Douglas Lamborn died in her sleep at home in Southampton on May 6. She was 81, and for 11 years she had fought a blood disease that eventually developed into leukemia.
Ms. Lamborn was born on May 30, 1933, in New York City to Barclay Douglas and Jane Elizabeth Foster. She grew up in New York City and surrounding areas, attending the Chapin School, Miss Hall’s School, and the Westover School, and graduated from Brillantmont, Switzerland. She was a member of the Colony Club in Manhattan, the Meadow Club and the Southampton Bathing Corporation in Southampton and the Moorings Yacht and Country Club in Vero Beach, Florida. She had several business positions in New York, including manager of Donald Bruce White Catering, a job she loved most, and she often told wonderful stories of her experiences there, survivors said. She owned shops in Southampton, where she lived on and off for more than 70 years. She served on the Southampton Village Planning Board.
Ms. Lamborn was a skier and an avid tennis and paddle tennis player. She played bridge and was a Bronze Life master, director and owned an American Contract Bridge League sanction. She had many bridge friends in both Southampton and Vero Beach.
Her love of dogs knew no bounds, and survivors said she was the epitome of the saying, “Dogs leave paw prints on your heart.”
Ms. Lamborn was predeceased by her former husbands Anthony D. Duke and Hunter Goodrich Jr. and a son, Barclay R. Duke. She is survived by her husband, George D.F. Lamborn; a son, Douglas Duke; two granddaughters, Delaney Duke and Georginna Duke; a brother, Barclay Douglas of Rhode Island; and a sister, Susan Yawney of Florida. She is also survived by two goddaughters, Helen Christian of Virginia and Leslie Zimmerman of North Carolina; and a relative she loved as a brother, Columbus O’Donnell of England.
She was the great-great-granddaughter of James Douglas, founder of Douglastown, New York; and the great-granddaughter of William Proctor Douglas, who brought polo and the America’s Cup to the United States.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 20, at 11:30 a.m. at St. Andrew’s Dune Church in Southampton.
Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue Fund, www.arfhamptons.org, or any other animal shelter.
on May 18, 2015