Librarian aided others with cancer

4/28/2006

MILAN, Ohio - Diane Mc-Lane, 52, a librarian for the Berlin-Milan Local School District, died of kidney failure Sunday in Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Norwalk, Ohio, after a 10-year bout with cancer.

Mrs. McLane, who lived in Milan, was a librarian for the school district for about 10 years.

Before that, she owned and operated the former Our Beginnings gift and card shop in Milan for six years in the 1980s.

Mrs. McLane was a longtime member of the Town & Country Theater in Norwalk, where she was involved in a number of plays.

In her free time, she enjoyed visiting other cancer patients, making hats for Milan's Edison High School's senior classes, knitting, and cross-stitching.

"She loved helping people," her husband of 32 years, Mike McLane, said. "She said, 'Cancer's not going to beat me.' She liked to share her experience in trying to beat cancer."

A native of Norwalk, Mrs. McLane, whose maiden name was Shane, graduated from Edison High School.

Mrs. McLane was a member of Calvary Baptist Church, Norwalk, where she was a member of the church choir.

Surviving are her husband Stanley "Mike" McLane; daughter, Rachelle Van Dyke, and brother, Scott Shane.

Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. tomorrow in Calvary Baptist Church, Norwalk. Arrangements are by the Groff Funeral Home, Milan.

The family suggests tributes to the church or Milan Public Library.