DIENER, Ataloa If there's a dance floor in Heaven, you can bet Ataloa Diener is on it and she's having one hell of a good time. Ataloa (or Ann, as she was known by most folks) passed away peacefully on the morning of July 24, 2019 with her daughters, Debbie and Denay, at her side. She was 84. Born three months premature to Garland and Louise Lester Clark in McAlester, Oklahoma, Ataloa clearly had no use for spending a full term inside of her mother's womb. An adventure beckoned on the outside and she couldn't wait to get started. Ataloa spent her early years in McAlester, Oklahoma City and Amarillo, before finally settling in Dallas in 1950. Twelve years later, she and her husband, the late Paul Diener, bought a home in Lakewood where they would raise their children Dwight, Debbie, Denay and Drew and she would live for the next 57 years. Ataloa loved Lakewood and she is an indelible part of the neighborhood's fabric. Her star graces the sidewalk in front of the historic Lakewood Theater just across the parking lot from another neighborhood landmark, the old Lakewood Library, known for the last 30-odd years as the Diener-Mills Building. If you ever wanted to catch Ataloa holding court in Lakewood, your best shot was to try the lower grill room at the Lakewood Country Club. In her heyday, Ataloa was at the Club at least three days a week eating lunch or dinner with friends in the grill or enjoying cocktails with them in the bar. For years she never missed a New Year's Eve at the Club, dancing the night away well past midnight with Paul and their collection of fun-loving friends, including her wild cohorts from the inaptly named Possum Hollow "Sewing" Club. While Lakewood captured Ataloa's heart, Galveston Island, in particular Pirates Beach, captured her soul and was, without a doubt, her favorite place on Earth. Ataloa and Paul started taking vacations to Galveston with their children in the 1960s. In 1980, they purchased a house on Pirates Beach. Battered by hurricanes and tropical storms over the years, The Diener Sea Lodge is still standing and remains a favorite vacation spot for Ataloa's children and grandchildren and their friends. For the better part of two decades, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, Ataloa spent her summer months (and then some) at the Sea Lodge. Most days would find her on the beach firmly planted in the middle of a growing circle of low-rise beach chairs, surrounded by friends new and old, her trademark cigarette in one hand Audrey Hepburn style and a Styrofoam cup full of something cold and tasty in the other, laughing and telling stories, turning a darker shade of bronze under the warm Gulf Coast sun. After heading back to Dallas at the end of the summer or in the early fall, Ataloa would return to Galveston on the first weekend of each December for Dickens on the Strand, an annual event she celebrated with her very best friends, Norma Johnson, Nancy Hudspeth, Ann Hazlett, Gayla Collinsworth, Marge Moore, Dorothy Whitley, Barbara Dabney, Paula Watson and Jane Dean McConnell. The Strand Strutters, as they called themselves, were a fixture at Dickens for close to 25 years. Ataloa, whose name in Choctaw means "Little Song," left us with a catalog of greatest hits. At times witty and gregarious and at all times unequivocally blunt, Ataloa was a true original, as authentic as the hundreds of shark teeth she collected over the years at low tide on Pirates Beach. Her expressions and witticisms are pure gold and will live on in the telling for generations to come. Ataloa was predeceased by her husband, Paul Diener, and is survived by her four children, Dwight Hirsch (daughter-in-law, Martha Hirsch) of College Station, Debbie Hirsch Toler of Dallas, Denay Diener Rosenblum (son-in-law, Craig Rosenblum) of Dallas, and Drew Diener (daughter-in-law, Beth Diener) of Prescott, Arizona; eight grandchildren, Kyle Thompson Murphy of Fort Worth, Katie Hirsch of Austin, Maddie Hirsch of Austin, Berryman Toler of Plano, Paul Rosenblum of Dallas, Evan Rosenblum of Dallas, Millie Diener of Prescott, Arizona, and Jake Diener of Prescott, Arizona; one great-grandchild, Everly Murphy of Fort Worth; and four cousins, Nakita Knight of San Antonio, Patsy Peterson of Fort Worth, Dale Lester of Midlothian, and Richard Lester of Irving. The family extends its sincerest thanks to the entire hospice team at CC Young and to the dedicated caregivers from Griswold Home Care, most especially Violet and Maxine, whose care and companionship in Ataloa's final days provided her with comfort and her loved ones with peace of mind. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, September 7, 2019 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at the Lakewood Country Club, 6430 Gaston Avenue in Dallas. In lieu of flowers, Ataloa would rather you make a donation in her memory to one of her favorite charities the SPCA of Texas, , or St. Joseph's Indian School.