Diane Merida Lawton, Western High teacher and softball coach, dies
Diane Merida Lawton, a longtime Western High School physical education teacher, died of progressive supranuclear palsy Jan. 21 at Gilchrist Center Baltimore. She was 91 and lived in Cheswolde.
Born in Tomahawk and raised in nearby Green Bay, Wisconsin, she was the daughter of the Rev. Father Henry Brendemihl, an Episcopal priest, and his wife, Merida Peterson.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin who double-majored in history and physical education, Ms. Lawton then joined the Women's Army Corps and reached the rank of captain. She was stationed at Fort McClellan in Alabama and on Governors Island in the New York Harbor. She recalled marching in Manhattan ticker tape parades.
Ms. Lawton settled in Baltimore and joined the Western High School faculty in 1965, where she taught physical education and was a softball and tennis coach. She retired in 1995.
She was also named a Baltimore Sun girls softball Coach of the Year.
During that tenure, Ms. Lawton received her master's degree in education from what is now Towson University.
'Diane was an outstanding teacher. Students loved her. She was caring, witty and funny,' Eva Scott, the school's former athletic director, said.
Andrea Price, who attended Western from 1981 to 1983, was a student of Ms. Lawton's, who taught her PE and was her softball coach.
'[She] checked with my teachers and myself to be sure I was applying myself and getting those grades that were needed to play softball and to graduate. Ms. Lawton was firm, fair and consistent, but always with a smile.'
Ms. Lawton also 'gave me the things that I believe every child needs: rules, boundaries and expectations. There were times when she made sure I had food to eat. … The most important 'gift' was to know that someone cared about my life; to know that I mattered.'
Ms. Lawton was a voracious reader and had a wealth of knowledge in the liberal arts.
'Her library filled our house,' said her partner, Shirley Williams. 'She was an Anglophile and loved reading Dickens. If she watched television, it was the Green Bay Packers or the British Broadcasting Corp.'
Ms. Lawton tended a rose garden at her Strathmore Avenue home. She spent the summer in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and enjoyed solving The New York Times crossword puzzle. She was a dog and cat fancier.
'Diane would charm you with her playful sense of humor, quick wit and irrepressible smile,' her partner said.
Survivors include her partner, Ms. Williams, a Baltimore City Schools teacher; a brother, Fred Brendemihl of Altadena, California; and nieces and nephews. A former marriage to Robert Lawton ended in divorce.
Burial will be in the Nashotah House Cemetery in Nashotah, Wisconsin. No date has been set.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at jacques.kelly@baltsun.com and 410-332-6570.
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