Diane Sweitzer
A front-row seat in heaven was filled by a superstar April 3, 2024 when Diane “Dint” (Moore) Sweitzer passed away at age 95, with her family at her side.
Dint’s friends and admirers will be heartened that she was razor sharp and running hot to her final day, which she spent at a trendy restaurant downing 99 cent burgers and giant shakes with her crew from Three Pillars Senior Living Communities. The previous day was a wheel around Milwaukee capped by a photo shoot with the Three Pillars gang.
Dint’s uncontainable inner light, ageless spirit and boundless creativity were magnetic. She was the epitome of classy and cool, humble and hip, gorgeous and gracious, a flag bearer for free spirit with a refusal to be pegged. Fellow rebels would draw a thumbs up of “I love the way you go down the road,” while cynics would be told to “go jump in the lake.”
Self-taught artist extraordinaire for more than 60 years, Dint’s Zen came at the easel with the fireplace crackling, incense swirling, paint brush flying, apron caked, phone off the hook, turntable stacked, singing along with Carole King, Janis Joplin, Neil Diamond and, of course, Babs. In the last 40 years, Dint taught and inspired hundreds the rhapsody of “painting outside the lines” in Pewaukee, Hartland, Delafield, Oconomowoc and Three Pillars. She was a member of the Almont Art Gallery in Waukesha, former in-house artist for the Hotel Metro in Milwaukee and, in maybe her crowning moment, was the featured self-taught female artist at Galerie Lareuse in Washington, DC, on Mother’s Day weekend 2005. Salutations flooding in include “mentor,” “muse,” “role model” and “rock star.”
In her mid-50s, Dint’s versatility shone again when she added professional modeling to her palette. Her youthful elegance and striking white hair launched her as an unintentional middle-age modeling pioneer. During the 1984 Winter Olympics, she was featured worldwide in a Kellogg’s cereal ad.
Dint and her husband of 67 years Jim, who died in 2016 at age 91, have four children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren: Daughter Sally Sheperdson and granddaughter Mollie Sheperdson; son Tom (Sue) Sweitzer, grandson Scott Sweitzer and granddaughter Lucy Prepelica (Ryan) and great-grandson Vaughn Prepelica; daughter Cindy Sweitzer, grandson Oliver Zinn, and grandson Christian Zinn (Kelly) and three great-grandchildren Sawyer, Halle and Violet; and son Paul (Jill Jank) Sweitzer and granddaughter Madeline Sweitzer (Zac Winkler). Special love extends to niece Barb Weiss and cousin Susan Ruggles, our family historian.
Special appreciation extends to Dint’s late-in-life running mate Don Badgley, whose sparkle and wink made him Dint’s perfect match. We love you, Don.
Dint, a Machell family descendent, is preceded by her mother Eunice “Gummy” Moore, father Jack Moore, brother David Moore, cousin Rick Lohr, grandmother Marion (Kate’s Ma) Machell and beloved Machell family patriarch Frank “Papa” Machell, Dint’s grandfather, who lived to a distinguished 102.
In lieu of flowers and gifts, donations can be made to the Three Pillars Senior Living Communities.
