(1928 – 2003)
Beyond what Diana wrote in her 2004 letter to “Hob” about her second husband, Merle “Ted” Puffer, a few more words are in order. Following her disastrous first marriage to Bob Mauer, Diana did say that, if she ever considered marriage again, it would be to someone she knew far better … and who had a sense of humor.
As far as the latter is concerned, both she and Ted seemed to savor life's lighter moments. Regarding the former, she recalled fondly, when she first met Ted in Rochester, he mentioned having been an accompanist for a number of her father's bassoon pupils. Another thing they found in common was that they enjoyed a good game of chess every now and then.
In 1951 when Diana and Ted were engaged, he already knew that his draft number had been called and he was to report for basic training in Augusta, Georgia. Luckily, he found the best way to stay out of Korea was to join a group of Army translators in West Germany where US and other NATO allies had listening posts to keep tabs on Soviet activities. That assignment served ...
Ted's other ulterior motive: to spend almost one year in Monterey just off Fort Ord attending Russian Studies at the Army Language Institute. (By the '80s it became the Defense Language Institute where Mandarin Chinese had been added and, not too long after, Arabic.)
The other part of the training was to master the intracies of the machines used to transmit intercepts. Ted found it akin to playing Mozart keyboard licks. The only problem was that his digital dexterity kept shorting out the equipment.
Diana said the most memorable part of her arrival at the Monterey Station in 1952 was that, upon stepping off the train, the severe downpour and wind had a net effect equivalent to a large pail of water being thrown directly at her. Still, Diana did come to enjoy the scenery at Pacific Grove (or as Ted and she often called it, “Pacific Grave”) and Carmel as well as the quaint things that made life special in those days.
Another municipality, Seaside, became popular while Diana and Ted lived on the Monterey peninsula. Most folks called it, “Flea-side, where the debris meets the sea.”
Among off-hours activities, besides helping Ted master Russian (she’d studied it some ten years earlier at RIT) they organized a weekend recital where she, Ted and another Army student, Lenny Klein, sang and played piano duets. While employed at a pottery boutique in Carmel, Diana made a chess set for unwinding every now and then with Ted.
She told how, just before they were to perform, she commented while trying to find a parking space, “There must be some other event happening around here. I’ve never had so much trouble finding a spot.” Turned out their recital was the only event that day.
In those days a large “White Russian” community lived on the peninsula. For that reason some four-hand piano works by Arensky were added to the program. Two of Lenny’s former teachers who taught at Mills, and had been famous in their own day, attended: Darius Milhaud and Egon Petri. Some Bach-Busoni opened the program and Scaramouche was performed as well.
Four years later, when Diana and Ted toured with the Shaw Chorale, one of their stops was Paris where they visited for a few hours with Lenny. He was studying composition at the Conservatory as well as working as an assistant professor.
That was the last time Diana saw Lenny in person although, in 2005, she found him with a quick google search and they renewed friendship mostly by e-mail and an occasional phone chat until his death in 2013.
1976 was the last time Diana and Ted saw each other, when the Reno Opera — co-founded by Ted — gave the US première of Jean d’Arc (or as the locals called it, “John Dark”) by Tschaïkowsky. Diana had wondered for decades why “Adieu forêts” was the only part of this opera that endured. After hearing the opera in its entirety she knew.
She and i went backstage after the performance. As Ted and Diana saw each other again for the first time in over 15 years, she broke the ice commenting that starting his own opera company was impressive. Ted countered by saying he’d made his way westward from Boston and, little by little, he’d be conducting one day in Honolulu.
He shifted the subject telling her she hadn’t changed since he last saw her and her comeback was “Neither have you” whereupon he said, “Hey, why don’t we quit lying to each other?”
That trip to Reno was also when Winnie told Diana she must hear a young UNR student, Dolora, sing and give her any advice she’d be willing to impart.