The Way We Were: Diane and Bill McFadden
Diane and Bill McFadden married 66 years ago on a late December day in Illinois while they were college students. The theme of their life has been the joy of being able to travel to many different places and to learn from the people there.
Since they married, Bill and Diane have moved 20 times. “We moved to areas that were fascinating. We’ve met many people, and we have grown from knowing them,” Diane said. Their neighbors have been of a variety of races, creeds and colors. “I learned to understand them and be a part of their lives.”
Though not local natives, Diane and Bill have lived here for several decades. They were both born in a small town, Herrin, in southern Illinois, 85 and 88 years ago, respectively. They both graduated from Southern Illinois University. Bill was drafted soon after into the United States Navy. They were sent to Newport, Rhode Island, before being transferred to Jacksonville, Florida, for navigation training in 1959. They lived on Post Street off Edgewood Avenue, at the start.
The first McFadden child, Michael, was born in July of that year at NAS Jax in a Quonset hut without air conditioning, one that had been left over from WWII.
“It was the most exciting birth I’ve ever had,” Diane said. Almost immediately, they were sent to Hawaii, where they spent 3 ½ years. While there, their second child, Marla, was born in Oahu. “I wanted to name her Liliʻuokalani after the queen of Hawaii,” Diane said. But she was told that would not be a good thing to do, so she chose a different Hawaiian name.
Bill was restationed to Jacksonville in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because NAS Jax was on alert, Diane could not give birth to their third, Amy, at the hospital there. Instead, she was assigned to St. Vincent’s in Riverside. Diane drove herself there in her Volkswagen Beetle while her mother stayed with Michael and Marla. Bill had already been deployed to Spain by then.
While Bill was away, six weeks after Amy was born, Diane boarded the train called City of Miami that used to begin in Miami, travel through Jacksonville, and end in Chicago. With three little children in tow, Diane was heading back toward her hometown to be with her Illinois family of origin. It wasn’t until late December 1963 that the McFaddens reunited at NAS Jax. That was the first time Bill had met his second daughter, who was six months old by then.
“When he left, I was nine months pregnant and had dark brown hair. When he came home, I had lost a considerable amount of weight and had bleached my hair. He practically walked right by me,” Diane said.
Bill retired from active military duty in 1965 to join the Navy Reserve. For 13 more years, he still had to report to NAS Jax regularly, so he and Diane bought a two-story house nearby. Bill landed a position at Peninsular Life Insurance Company. Diane was a stay-at-home mom who occasionally substitute taught, as she had done nearly every day when they lived in Rhode Island.
Bill’s officer status at the insurance company included recruiting salesmen for overseas offices, so the McFaddens continued to travel a lot, often attending insurance conventions and serving as the host committee. They’ve been to Scotland and the Panama Canal. They have ridden the Rhine River through Switzerland, and have visited Amsterdam. Domestic trips were included as well, like Washington, D.C. and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
“We have enjoyed being able to see this magnificent world that we live in,” Diane said.
In the mid ’70s, Bill accepted a transfer to London, England. The children were 11, 13, and 15. They learned to survive in an enormous city with a totally different structure than they were used to.
“They had the joy of being at school in London, but they went to school most of their lives in Jacksonville,” Diane said. Their list of local schools is long: Venetia Elementary, Lake Shore Middle, Lee High (now Riverside), Riverside Christian (during the bussing crisis) and St. Johns Country Day.
For the nearly two years that the McFaddens lived in London, they rented out their Jacksonville home so they would have something to come back to. When they did, Diane, in her 40s, began a new adventure. She partnered with a friend and went into the dry-cleaning business.
“I knew nothing on earth about it,” she said, but there was her last name out front, McFadden’s Dry Cleaners, in the Venetia Shopping Center beside the old Pizza Hut.
A decade more had passed before Occidental Life took over Peninsular and transferred Bill to Raleigh, North Carolina. By that time, the McFadden children were grown and off on their own, so it was only Bill and Diane who made that move. Before they left, Diane sold her business.
While Bill worked at the new insurance office, Diane took a job as a part-time assistant librarian within the Raleigh system.
“It was great fun. I enjoyed it because I got to read all the books I wanted to, which I love to do. Reading is my favorite sport,” she said.
After seven years, Bill and Diane returned once more to Jacksonville, bought a house in Ortega, and have lived there on Pirates Cove Road ever since. Both have been active in the community in a variety of pursuits.
Bill used to be an active sportsman. “When you’re in your 80s, there are always parts that aren’t working quite properly anymore,” Diane said.
For Bill, it’s his back and his knees. So, he has taken to building model airplanes and ships in the evenings. But team tennis at the Florida Yacht Club was a pastime for him and Diane up until a few years ago.
“And we were boating people,” Diane said. For a long time, they had at least one or two different kinds of vessels docked at the Club.
For years, Diane and Bill have been heavily involved at St. Johns Presbyterian Church. Both are ordained elders. She is a Stephen Minister, ordained to help those in crisis. He is a trustee. Diane had been a Sunday school teacher there for a long time. These days, she leads a women’s bible study group twice per month.
Both of the McFaddens’ daughters live in Jacksonville, their son in Dallas. They have seven grandchildren, “Five of whom are married, so that doubles my grandchildren,” Diane said. And they have nine greats.
“It’s been a wonderful life, and it still is!” she confirmed.
By Mary Wanser
Resident Community News
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