Diana L. (Crosbie) Harper, 75, of Relay, MD passed away peacefully on March 13, 2023. Beloved Wife of James T. Harper, Jr., Mother of Elisabeth Harper (Andrew Craig), Grandmother of Anya and Keira, Sister of Howard H. Crosbie, III (Nancy Crosbie).

Diana was born in Baltimore and grew up in the small community of Dorsey in Anne Arundel County. She lived with her parents and grandmother in the house in which her mother was born. She started formal piano lessons at age 4 and regularly played piano and organ for her local church Sunday School. Her public school education began in a four-room schoolhouse that was within walking distance of her home.

Diana attended the Samuel Ready School for two years before transferring to Arundel High School, graduating in 1965.

She entered the University of Maryland, College Park, as a Liberal Arts major. However she dropped out in 1968 in her junior year to marry her high school sweetheart, Jamie Harper, who was in the US Navy. She then relocated to Groton, CT where Jamie was attending Submarine School. Upon completion of his training, they were transferred to Charleston, SC where he was assigned to a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. As a navy wife, Diana endured her husband's 70-day submerged patrols, which allowed no communication.

Upon her husband's discharge from the Navy in 1970 they returned to Maryland where he started his engineering education at UMCP and she began a nine year career as an administrative assistant while also completing her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English literature, with a minor in music with additional post-graduate education.

On her husband's graduation from the University, they eventually moved to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia where he was employed as a Nuclear Engineer at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Diana worked as a technical writer for an electronics warfare defense contractor. In 1982, she left full-time employment to become a full-time mother upon the birth of her daughter, Elisabeth. She also worked part-time in a needle work store to support her life-long interest in textile arts.

Upon her husband's transfer to the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center in 1990, Diana returned to Maryland, eventually settling in her family home located in the village of Relay.

Based on their long-time love of spending time at the ocean, Diana and Jamie purchased a condominium apartment in Ocean City, spending most of their vacation time there. Diana loved laying on the beach, staring at the horizon, and basking in the sun.

As a little girl, Diana had been taught sewing, knitting and embroidery by her mother and aunts and these were skills that she used throughout her life. She had an interest in all of the fabric arts and over the years she worked in sewing, quilting, cross-stich samplers, crochet, knitting, weaving and subsequently, primitive rug-hooking. Her quilts were in various national shows and she was awarded a Blue Ribbon for embroidery in the Maryland State Fair. Diana was an active member in various organizations related to her many interests. Later in life she developed an interest in oil painting and sold her paintings at the Matt-About-You gallery in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Diana was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, as well as a talented musician, textile designer, and artist. She enjoyed quilting, embroidery, rug hooking, weaving, and knitting. She was an accomplished classical pianist who enjoyed playing everything from Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert, along with popular and traditional music. If she heard it, she could play it.