Diana Knott-Bridwell

Diana Despard Bridwell (nee Knott) of Glen Ellen, CA passed away peacefully Saturday, August 12 at the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital after a very brief illness.  She was 73 at her time of passing.

Diana was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1950 and is the daughter of Richard F. Knott and Carol Rede Knott late of Kenilworth, IL.  She is survived by her husband and life partner of 35 years, and the love of her life, Robert S. Bridwell her husband.  She is also survived by her father Richard of Sonoma, CA, her brothers Tracy and Tom Knott of Tucson, AZ and numerous nephews and nieces as well as her step daughter Melissa Rubiola and two grandkids of San Antonio, TX, and Macaela Lundquist, of Charleston, SC her niece who she saw as the natural daughter she never had. Her mother Carol and sister Sally preceded Diana in death.

Diana grew up on the Northshore of Chicago and attended Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth and New Trier High School in Winnetka.  She attended Rollins College in Winter Park, FL where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority.  After graduating in 1972 she took graduate courses in psychology at the Universities of Virginia and Colorado and completed a course in business at the Katie Gibbs School in Boston.  She also attended the New York School of Interior Design where she honed her interest in interior design and antiques.

Diana moved to San Francisco in 1974 and joined the first of the two law firms she spent the next 37 years working as a Legal Assistant.  She met her life partner Robert Bridwell in 1989 and they became engaged in 1990 and married in 2001. The couple lived in San Francisco where Diana and Robert enjoyed the close friendship of several people who became part of their extended family and joined them on excursions in and away from California.  Diana, as a French Major in college was near-fluent and she and Robert made numerous trips to France where they especially enjoyed Paris, Provence and the perched villages along the Riviera.

Diana and Robert moved full-time to their home in Glen Ellen in 2008 where Diana resided when stricken suddenly by the disease that ended her life in less than two weeks.

Services are to be held at the Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Kenwood.  She will be interned in her family niche at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth.  In lieu of flowers, Diana would prefer donations be made to Pet’s Lifeline, 19686 8th Street, Suite E, Sonoma, CA  95476.

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