Diane Faye Kirby

Diane Faye (Koland) Kirby, age 80, passed away Monday, March 2, 2026 at Elderwood of Hinckley.

An unusually warm and inviting Thursday on March 15, 1945, welcomed a beautiful baby girl into a little house on the prairie of the Red River Valley, just southwest of Argyle, Minnesota. Parents Verna (Benson) and Trygve Koland now had five children. On the same date, Verna’s youngest sister, Inyce Hendricks, was giving birth to her first child, Duane. They and their families celebrated those birthdays together for many years.

Diane and her sister Darlene hated getting their tangled hair brushed out after their Saturday night baths. Their brothers retreated into the shadows, thanking God that they were born as boys.

Diane grew up without electricity, indoor plumbing, or running water. She attended one-room schoolhouses for her elementary education. She loved to read, write, sing, and play with her two twin dolls named Pete and Repete. Diane adored their dog, Trixie, who became her constant companion. Her family embraced the Lord through the faith of their parents and their rural Alma Baptist Church.

The Koland family moved from Argyle to Bruno in 1953, and four years later to rural Sandstone, Minnesota, just a half-mile from where her grandparents, Ole and Tomene Koland, Norwegian immigrants, had raised their family since the early nineteen hundreds.

Diane had perfect attendance from the 7th through her 12th grades at Sandstone Jr. and Sr. High. She attended St. Paul Bible College in St. Paul and later transferred to Bemidji State University to pursue her BA and M.Ed. degrees. There, she met and married David Armant, and they spent several years teaching in Northern Wisconsin schools.

Sometime after their marriage was dissolved, Diane suffered a life-altering closed-head injury in the school parking lot in Ashland, Wisconsin. It ended her teaching career. She retreated to her nearly new rustic country home within sight of her parents' house. Their lights and love strengthened her through many storms.

Diane enjoyed acting in community theater, woodworking projects, and seasonal decorating of the Pine County Museum in Askov with her best friend, Cookie Hansen. She wrote some creative children’s books illustrated by her cousin, Betty Berglund. Diane taught an annual children’s pioneer school modeled on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s experiences. It was hosted in the Danforth log cabin school, where Diane had been taught decades earlier.

Diane’s most rewarding relationships were with three beautiful white Samoyed dogs who were her constant companions for nearly twenty-five years: TJ, Yenta, and Loki.

Later in life, she befriended and married Richard Kirby. They were united in marriage in Indiana on June 25, 2010. He died of heart failure on May 2, 2022, while she was a resident in Elderwood of Hinckley.

Diane honored her parents.

Diane was a “daddy’s girl." Every Christmas, they would go down to the “Old Place” together to sit and talk about her dad growing up there, and the family all holding hands together and singing Christmas carols around the tree in the middle of the room. He would say of her, “She was our biggest concern and our most comforting child.”

After Dad passed, Diane would start each day by going home to check on her mother. She was the one who found her on the floor early on a February Monday morning and called the ambulance to have her transported to the hospital. The day mom died, later that week, Diane was in the room when a warm smile crossed mom’s face. She asked her mother, “What do you see?” Her answer, "I am looking at my new home, the Lord has prepared for me.”

She traveled to Norway for the Koland family reunion organized by Gary and Curtis. Later, she hosted Norwegian relatives in her home for a huge Koland reunion organized by the great-grandchildren of Ole and Tomene, with help from Betty Berglund and David Koland.

Diane was peacefully called to her eternal reward on Monday morning, March 2, 2026. She had spent her final years at the home where she chose to live, Elderwood of Hinckley, after many years of medical issues and in multiple care facilities.

She is survived by her brothers Gary Koland, Ronn (Marilyn McMaster) Koland; sister Darlene Carlson; and a host of nephews and nieces with their growing families.

Diane was preceded in death by her parents Trygve and Verna Koland; older brother and his wife David and Peggy (Johnston) Koland; three of their children Wendy Carlson, infant brother Daniel, and infant sister Patricia; niece by marriage to Greg Koland, Jerilyn Koland; brother-in-law Morris Carlson; and sister-in-law Janet (Athey) Koland.

Reverend Peter Dobson and Pastor Ronn Koland will officiate at funeral services for Diane: 3 PM; Sunday, (3/15) with a time of visitation one hour prior to the service at the Danforth Community Chapel. Diane's interment will take place at 10 AM; Monday (3/16) at Spring Park Cemetery of Sandstone.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to the: Funeral and Cremation Service of Pine City ~ Swanson Chapel

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