Dianna Dyak, 46: Her Life Remembered

The photos of the late Dianna Dyak on the video tribute posted on Clifford-Shoemaker Funeral Home’s website show the lifelong Cuyahoga Falls resident from infancy through her years as a student and cheerleader at parochial school and beyond.

Dianna - the little girl in her First Holy Communion dress, the youngster on the cheerleading squad and the teenager strumming a guitar - had her sights on becoming a doctor until a car crash disrupted her plans in August 1982.

Another accident took her life on June 1, at . She was 46.

Dianna Theresa Dyak, known to many as DeeDee, was born on New Year’s Eve, 1964, in Cuyahoga Falls.

Her parents, John and Anna, had immigrated from Yugoslavia but didn’t know each other until meeting at the German-American Hall in Akron after World War II.  

They got married and lived in Akron before moving in 1955 to Cuyahoga Falls, where they raised their five children: Linda Ann, Anna Sue, Annette, John and, their youngest child, Dianna.

Dianna attended , where she was a cheerleader, played softball and served with the patrol guard and as an altar girl.

She also was in a tamburitza band at the Croatian Club in Akron and delivered newspapers for the Akron Beacon-Journal.

Dianna received an academic scholarship to attend Our Lady of the Elms High School in Akron in 9th grade before going to .

“She was a smart girl,” her sister Annette Williamson said. “She wanted to be a doctor.”

The summer before her senior year, she worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken and ordered her class ring, identifying her as a member of the Cuyahoga Falls High Class of 1983.

Around the time that the new school year was about to begin, Dianna was a passenger in a car that went over a cliff on Hardy Road. She was taken to Akron City Hospital with injuries to her brain, internal organs and right hand.

“It appeared one of her hands was crushed between a tree and the car,” said her brother, John. “It shattered the bone (of her right hand). Her left hand shook because of the blow to the head.”

Dianna, who was in a coma for three months, learned to walk and eat again. The trauma left her with a limp, short-term memory loss and limited use of her hands.

The limp didn’t hamper her ability or her desire to walk. She required assistance tying her shoes, buttoning shirts and cutting up food due to problems with her hands.

As for short-term memory loss, she remembered – and celebrated – the birthdays of everyone in her family, but she didn’t know whether someone had called in the last hour.  She liked to read the newspaper, do the word jumble puzzles and help her brother with difficult crossword puzzle questions.

For much of her stay in the hospital, her father also was hospitalized due to ulcers. He died Dec. 8, 1982.

Dianna went home in January. She was tutored at home to finish her high school education. She attended the 1984 commencement exercises and walked as best she could to receive her diploma.

The Dyak family adjusted to their changing circumstances.

“We all had a purpose,” her sister said. “Hers did not involve going to work or driving a car.”

Dianna wanted to be a responsible adult.

“She paid her taxes, she voted, she knew the issues,” her brother said. “She was more prepared than you can believe. She loved Cuyahoga Falls. This was the place to be.”

She attended all sorts of church and community functions, including the Italian and German festivals and on Fridays. She walked all over town, greeting folks she encountered along the way and telling kids on bicycles to be careful.

Dianna spent a lot of time visiting with people at Arby’s Restaurant on State Road, where, as she told her sister, “You can drink all the pop you want for 99 cents and watch the people come in and out.”

Her brother said, “She was not a poor soul or lost soul. She did have a lot going for her. She was never on hard times. She was always upbeat and smiling. She never saw herself as being disabled in any way. She wanted to help people that didn’t need as much help as she did.”

Her sister, Linda Ann, also died at age 46 of complications from an enlarged heart in 2002. Her mother died in October 2010.

Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Saturday, June 4, at Immaculate Heart of Mary with arrangements by .