Diana Helen Iler
Diana Helen Iler was born 12/21/35 in a small town near Toronto, Canada. She was the daughter of Anthony & Robina Pallister-Young and older sister to Jim Pallister-Young. Anthony joined the Canadian Military and died in Dieppe, France, serving his country during WW2. In 1944, Diana’s mother decided to pack up and move her family by train to Los Angeles.
Diana graduated from Canoga Park High School in 1953. She then enrolled at UCLA, majored in art and also joined the water ballet club during the era when Olympic trained synchronized swimmer Esther Williams was a Hollywood icon.
While in the water ballet club, Diana was introduced to James Iler, who would become her future husband. James and a friend would perform comedy skits off the diving board and into the pool while the team changed their swimming costumes between performances. They started dating and were married a year later at Saint Nicholas Episcopal Church. Diana, a talented seamstress made her own wedding gown. The newlyweds honeymooned through Europe on a Lambretta scooter for two months and purchased a portable kayak to paddle down a section of the Rhine River.
Diana and James raised 2 sons while living in Santa Monica & Venice Beach. After James was hired by the Howard Hughes Aircraft Co. the family moved to Costa Mesa and eventually landed in Santa Barbara in 1969.
During their early school years, Diana took her sons to all their sporting and musical practices and helped drive the family to the East Coast in a Country Squire station wagon pulling a canned ham trailer. The goal was to visit the many national parks, and relatives along the way, explore New York and climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
James and Diana were members at the YMCA on Hitchcock Way. She swam laps until Covid arrived, while Jim played basketball into his mid 80’s. A talented artist, painter and designer, she made stained glass windows and refinished many pieces of the antique furniture that decorated our home.
Diana admired flowers and birds and had a prolific green thumb. She kept a bountiful rose and vegetable garden. An avid bird watcher, Diana knew the names of most all her feathered friends that frequented her backyard birdbath and seed feeder. She volunteered at the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens for years and later joined a quilting guild sewing dozens of quilts and pillows for post operation heart patients at Cottage Hospital.
Eventually quilting became her favorite hobby, all of which were donated, along with the stuffed toy animals that Diana collected to distribute amongst newborns for families in need. In 2024 she joined Living Faith Church, where she beautified the grounds by pruning the roses and tending the flowers.
Diana was a sweetheart with many friends in the quilting circles and will be dearly missed by her family and all who knew her.
She was predeceased by her husband James Iler and is survived by her two sons.
