Wilma “Diane” Blizzard, 75, of Woodbridge, VA, passed away on April 19, 2021, at her home with her husband after a 6-year battle with Colon Cancer.
Diane was born in Shadyside, Ohio to William and Teresa Jorden on August 23, 1945. She attended Union Local High School in Belmont, Ohio where she met and dated her future husband, Bardon “Buzz” Blizzard Jr. from Badgersburg, Ohio. They have been together since he was 14 and she was 15. They were married on December 24, 1964 in a small private service at a chapel near Belmont, Ohio, while he was at home on leave as an Infantry Corporal in the U.S. Army. For the next 23 years, she travelled with and supported him in his career as an Infantry and Special Forces Officer including multiple unaccompanied overseas tours encompassing 3 to Vietnam along with several classified assignments.
Following his retirement from the Army in 1986, she too transitioned careers from being a full-time Army wife who worked part time to help make ends meet, to that of being a full-time employee in the of the Maintenance Department of Prince William County School System. She worked there as a secretary until forced to retire due to her ongoing final battle with Colon Cancer. Throughout her life, she was a dedicated and loving mother and wife who enjoyed fishing, owls, and annual trips to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, with her favorite sister, Mary, and friends.
Diane was preceded in death by an unnamed infant, her three sisters (Nora, Jane, and Mary), and her parents.
Diane is survived by her husband, Buzz; her son Mike of Manassas; her daughter Kimberly and husband, Brian, of Bristow; and her nephew Laird Poff of Lillington, NC.
She asked that no flowers be sent and instead that any memorials be given as donations to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) which was her chosen charity. A Celebration of Life will be held later, after COVID, and she will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.
Diane’s family wishes to offer our sincere appreciation to her oncologists, Drs. Kula and Lee, and all of those at the Virginia Cancer Center in Woodbridge. Additionally, we also want to express a deepest thanks to her surgeon Dr. Bartolosi at NOVANT, and her general medicine doctor, Dr. Wierzbicki of Lake Family Medicine, both of whom went far beyond the normal to care for and comfort her.
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