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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Diana Burgess 
January 23, 1998 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Allison Card  00:01 
--review with Diana. The date is January 23, 1998, and we're sitting in her living room. Okay, so 
do you want me to start with asking stuff? Or did you have stuff specifically? 
 
Diana Burgess  00:21 
I spoke with my mother, and she gave me three names of her siblings that I did not even 
mention.  
 
Allison Card  00:28 
Oh, okay, let me get that. 
 
Diana Burgess  00:29 
One, I had called one of her brothers Buddy, and I said I would find out his correct name.  
 
Allison Card  00:36 
Yeah. 
 
Diana Burgess  00:36 
His legal name.  
 
Allison Card  00:37 
Let me find out where those are, okay. So for Buddy, his real name is? 
 
Diana Burgess  00:49 
Clearence. 
 
Allison Card  00:50 
Okay, C-L-- 
 
Diana Burgess  00:54 
--E-A-R-E-N-C-E. 
 
Allison Card  00:57 
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Okay.  
 
Diana Burgess  00:58 
And she also has a brother named David. I did not [clears throat]-- 
 
Allison Card  01:04 
All right, so getting to this, do you have something specific? 
 
Diana Burgess  01:12 
Gosh, I can't remember all the things that I said last meeting, 
 
Allison Card  01:17 
Um, I think-- stuff that I mentioned, knowing childhood things, not-- more stuff of, like, your 
earliest childhood memory. 
 
Diana Burgess  01:35 
I'm brain dead. I'm sorry. My earliest childhood memory, probably being home by myself with 
my mom, after all my-- after my brother and my sisters, all you know, were in school. I 
remember, you know, things like that. 
 
Allison Card  01:54 
You don't know what was your mom doing? What sort of thing? 
 
Diana Burgess  01:57 
Just housework. I just kind of felt like she was my buddy, you know, because I had her to 
myself, and I think it was like quality time, because when they came home, it was like everybody 
needed her for something, you know, as much as sewing a hem in a skirt, or cooking dinner, or 
washing a particular garment. So it was fun. I felt very close to my mother as a young child. Of 
course, as I've gotten older, I kind of drifted. I'm very close to my mother now [clears throat], but 
there was a time in my life that we weren't close. I guess maybe I was going through that 
rebellion, you know, that quote, unquote, wild teenager and parents couldn't tell me nothing. You 
know. 
 
Allison Card  02:52 
What were those times like? 
 
Diana Burgess  02:53 
I was basically wild. I won't say I was loose, but my hometown, we have a college, like a four 
year college, and it was, in fact, it was called Washington and Jefferson, named-- nicknamed, or 
called W and J, but they had football games not far from my home. And my cousin, Michael, 
he's more like a brother to me. He and I used to sneak off and go to their football games, and 
then sneak off and go to their fraternity parties. And I was like-- well, I was sophomore in high 
school. So like I said, we were wild [microphone is disturbed] [inaudible] not home, not to the 
place where I was a tramp or cheap, we just kind of did things like that. I'd never came home 
drunk or throwing up, but I would come home very, very-- I don't want to say high, because it's 
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kind of like smoking marijuana, but I was quite intoxicated. We've done that probably about two 
years till I was a senior, and that became old stuff. 
 
Allison Card  02:55 
What were the parties like that you'd go to? What do you remember about those? 
 
Diana Burgess  04:18 
They always had live bands. Of course, you could drink as much as you wanted, you know, and 
the music's loud, just wall-to-wall people, not too many Blacks. But that was okay, because no 
one really just, you know, said, What are they doing here? Wasn't anything, anything like that. 
She bit me. I'm sorry. 
 
Allison Card  04:42 
I thought she licked you.  
 
Diana Burgess  04:44 
She bit me.  
 
Allison Card  04:45 
You're ignoring her. 
 
Diana Burgess  04:46 
But, mostly, what we did do, we did have a particular fraternity house that we would attend, and 
it was the Phi Lambda-- I can't remember now, but I just remember it was Jewish and that seems 
that-- back then, it just seemed to be the most welcoming. And we got to know all of the 
fraternity guys, and they used to call me by my first name. And you know, when they had a 
fraternity party, they would let Michael and myself attend, and it was fun. It was like [clears 
throat], after two years, my oldest sister Vicky, she found out what we were doing. We would 
never, ever let her go with us, because for number [?was?], she could not hold her liquor, and we 
knew we would be busted. Michael's mother was-- Michael's mother is Marie, and she she was 
very strict. But anyhow, one time we let her attend this party, and unfortunately, it was one of the 
worst snowstorms in Washington, Pennsylvania, and we were in walking distance, so it was 
okay, but by the time we had gotten Vicky out of the fraternity house, she was very intoxicated. 
She was drinking, I'll never forget, she was drinking gin and tonic, and then she was sitting on 
this-- I guess they call it-- I think they call it a radiator. They said, steam heat. It might be-- I 
think it is what they called it. But she sat on that all night, so quite naturally, she was going to be 
sick. Where needless to say, when we got her home, my dad was sitting on the sofa, as he usually 
does, reading the newspaper spread across the coffee table, and it was little after 11. So you 
know, can you imagine how much drinking we was doing, maybe a couple hours. But I kept 
saying, Don't say anything when you go in this house. So I open-- we had to go down this long 
hallway, and as we get to the doorway of the living room, Vicky says, Hi Daddy, real loud. So, I 
just gave her a push so that, you know, he couldn't see her anymore. So I finally got her upstairs 
to her bedroom, and I said, Now, you just lay on this bed, and when I come back, I'll help you 
get undressed. Because I wanted to go down and talk to my mom, basically to find out if we 
were in trouble, but my mother didn't pay any attention. So the next morning, I thought I was 
home free, again, and my mother said at the breakfast table-- she was very good about not 
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scolding me in front of my dad, because my dad, kind of mean and very strict, almost nowadays, 
you could call him a child abuser.  
 
Allison Card  07:51 
What would he do?  
 
Diana Burgess  07:52 
Well, maybe he would beat you for God. He would just beat you merciful-less. We would get 
beat with those yardsticks. I don't know if they make those long, wooden yard-- 
 
Allison Card  08:04 
--yeah, the wooden yardsticks-- 
 
Diana Burgess  08:05 
--sticks, belts. To a certain age, we had to take our clothes off. And it was-- we used to call it the 
whipping board, but it was actually, it was like telephone wires, telephone cords, not like there, 
but what the electricity was running through, like outside. Power lines? 
 
Allison Card  08:28 
Oh, power lines.  
 
Diana Burgess  08:29 
And he would braid them, like in fours, and then he put black tape around that. And I remember 
getting whipped by that. We used to have swathes and scars on our legs. 
 
Allison Card  08:41 
What kind of stuff would provoke him to do that? 
 
Diana Burgess  08:44 
My dad, it could be anything. You could just look at him the wrong way, and he would just love 
to handle It was a lot of things. Or, if you were supposed to do something and you forgot to do it, 
which is normal for kids, you know, I mean, gosh, they would be angry, or he might be mad at 
my mother, because maybe she didn't fix something at the dinner-- for dinner the way that he 
thought-- just things that really did not amount to a hill of beans. 
 
Allison Card  09:16 
Mm-hmm. Did he ever hit your mother with those as well, or was it just the children?  
 
Diana Burgess  09:20 
The only time I seen my dad hit my mother, I was older, and I think it was-- well, I know it was 
Vicky, myself, and my sister Sandy, because after her first marriage didn't work out, she moved 
back home. But we were sitting around the dinner table, and my dad-- I, to this day, I don't know 
why they were arguing, but he was very angry at my mother about something, and I remember 
he just said, Viola, I'm so sick and tired of your mouth. And he had his finger in her face, just 
pointing. And he got up from his chair, walked over to her, and he just slapped her. It wasn't 
really hard, but he slapped another-- nonetheless. And my mother was crying. And I remember 
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my sister said, Daddy, if you hit her one more time, you're going to have to hit me too. So my 
dad had went upstairs and packed his suitcase, and he came down the stairs and he announced, 
I'm leaving, and I want to know which of you children-- which of you kids are coming with us? 
Well, needless to say, none of us even moved away from the table. So he left, and two hours later 
he came back, and that's the first and last time I ever, you know, seen him hit my mom, or even 
hear of him hitting my mother. 
 
Allison Card  10:42 
How did your mother react when you guys were hit? 
 
Diana Burgess  10:47 
Nothing, she didn't do anything. The only time-- 
 
Allison Card  10:50 
--she knew.  
 
Diana Burgess  10:51 
Yeah, she knew. The only time I heard my mother say anything in anybody's defense, and maybe 
because I was 14, and my dad had cornered me. Because it was an old house, excuse me, there 
were stairs that led up from the dining room, as well as stairs-- doorway that led up to the stairs 
from the living room. And I so happen was in the living-- in the dining room, and you could have 
the doors open or closed. Well this time, the doors was closed, and I was trying to get the door 
open so I could go upstairs and get away from him, and I wasn't fast enough. But he had me in 
the corner, as I said, and I was trying to defend myself with my hands. And I was just-- 
 
Allison Card  11:39 
--now why was he mad this time? 
 
Diana Burgess  11:43 
As I said, it could have been anything. Oh, yes, I do. I remember exactly. I'll tell you about that. 
This is so-- wow, I forgot that. But anyhow, my mother said, don't just-- don't just stand there. 
Get away from him. Don't get in that corner. That's the only time my entire life I heard my 
mother speak up. But my sister Jeannie had this friend. Her name's Janet, she died, but she was-- 
I don't want to say, she wasn't petite, but she had a nice shape, you know, and she talked very 
slow, and when she walked, she strut. It wasn't deliberate. That's just the way she walked. And I 
remember my dad was at the dining room table, and he was typing an address on this postcard 
because he loved to play those-- to complete those crossword puzzles. And he would always 
send the crossword puzzles in because he could win money. Well, one time he did, I think, like 
50 bucks. It wasn't a lot of money. But anyhow, he was at the table typing this postcard, and he 
was just using one finger, and Janet came through. She was at-- I was at that age where I thought 
she was cool, because I never seen a female so cool like her, and I used to mock her, you know. 
So she went switching by and said, Ah, Mr. Burgess, look at you. You can't type. Well, big 
mouth Diana came back-- came by here maybe three minutes later, and said, Oh, Mr. Burgess, 
you can't type. Well, that pissed my dad off thoroughly. Believe me, he just went ballistic. He 
did wait till Janet left. He didn't let Janet see him like that. So needless to say, all my friends 
were afraid of my dad. 
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Allison Card  13:44 
Right. 
 
Diana Burgess  13:44 
Boyfriends and girlfriends, so. 
 
Allison Card  13:47 
But did he act that way commonly in front of them? You said he waited for her to leave before 
he did that. 
 
Diana Burgess  13:52 
No. No, no, because I had a girlfriend, Kitty, he would just love to perform. You know, while 
they were there. I think he was just putting on in front of Janet, because he just used to say, Oh, I 
like that Janet. I think he was just kind of putting on. Pretending that he was so nice. 
 
Allison Card  14:20 
Who would normally do the disciplining in the family? Would it be your father in those 
situations? Or would-- you said-- 
 
Diana Burgess  14:26 
--far as getting whipped? Yeah, but my mother would tell me things like, Okay, you didn't come 
home when I told you. You're not going to a dance, and that would be the end of it. [Microphone 
is disturbed] [inaudible] ever. [Inaudible] far as punishing, you know? Physical-- 
 
Allison Card  14:46 
--what were her forms of discipline? 
 
Diana Burgess  14:48 
Just taking privileges away. That's it.  
 
Allison Card  14:51 
So back to what you're talking about with the fraternity party, you guys came home the next 
morning. You're sitting at the table.  
 
Diana Burgess  14:56 
Yeah, so my mother says, Oh, you think [cat meows] you can sneak in this house, and I can't tell 
that youse been drinking [laughs]? So I'm sitting there glaring at Vicky, and I said to myself, I 
know she told Mommy, I know it. So she says, So you won't be going anywhere for the next 
couple weekends. So finally, maybe a week later, we caught her in a good mood. So how did you 
know? Because Vicky said I didn't tell her. I swear I did not tell her. So my mother said, Vicky, 
when she takes her clothes off, she always hangs them up, you know? 
 
Allison Card  15:38 
Right. And you guys didn't-- 
 
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Diana Burgess  15:41 
--no, because I didn't know that. I take my clothes off and just, you know [laughs]-- they threw-- 
they would fall wherever they-- wherever I threw them, you know. And that's-- and she says, Uh 
huh. So I just-- 
 
Allison Card  15:56 
--says that she was very perceptive, too.  
 
Diana Burgess  15:57 
Yeah, she was. Yeah, she definitely was. 
 
Allison Card  16:00 
Did you get caught often, going to parties? 
 
Diana Burgess  16:03 
No, that's the first time ever. She never knew. It's funny, because as a grown woman, we talk 
about it, and she'll be in the room, she says, Where was I at? How come I didn't know anything 
about that? Oh, oh, now you're telling on yourself, you know, but she didn't know. She thought 
we were just-- because my aunt Marie, she worked-- She was working, like, seven-- no, three to 
11, she worked in a hospital. And of course, we was going to be home by 11. Dare not have, you 
know, have Michael in trouble. So I would always say, hey Mom, Aunt Marie's-- Aunt Marie 
said I could stay up her house, but she didn't care, because, like I said, Michael and I were like, 
brother and sisters, and that's where I had my cover. She was-- she wasn't thinking, What, Diana 
and Michael out to fraternity house parties? No way. So everyone said I had that sweet charm, 
but they said I corrupted a lot of the kids in the neighborhood, because I was the one that got 
everyone drinking beer and stuff. You know, it's-- [laughs] and most of it's true. Unfortunately, it 
was. Just like smoking. I was like 14? No, 15, when I started smoking cigarettes and got my 
sister Vicky started. 
 
Allison Card  17:31 
Uh-huh. So were you more rebellious than your other sisters?  
 
Diana Burgess  17:34 
Yes, most definitely. Absolutely, 100 percent. Yeah, I was. So I guess what they didn't dare to 
do, I did it. That's probably why I'm so laid back now. I'm bored. Saying, Well, what can I do? 
You know, at 50, what is there to do? Oh, my God, I had probably done everything. We even ran 
away. Michael and I did. 
 
Allison Card  18:01 
Did you? Where did you go? 
 
Diana Burgess  18:03 
[Laughs] God. About two and a half blocks from my home, there was this man, how do you say 
it? Refurbished mobile homes?  
 
Allison Card  18:13 
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Yeah.  
 
Diana Burgess  18:14 
And he had a whole acre, I swear, of mobile homes, and Michael and I had packed-- I think we-- 
well, I know. I was probably 12. We had packed our peanut butter and jelly and pickle 
sandwiches and some kind of drink, but it was cold and rainy, and we decided we were going to 
spend the night in one of these mobile homes. We almost set the thing on fire. We're so stupid 
trying to get a fire going. Built a fire in the kitchen sink. What was wrong with us? We could 
have died, you know? But as we did that, somebody had opened up the door back by the 
bedroom. So we were scaredy kids, anyhow, 'fraidy cats. So we just ran home. And then I 
remember one time we jumped a freight-- a freight train, and we stayed on that probably across 
town. So I'm thinking, maybe eight miles from my home. How old were you then? We were 
younger then, we were probably about nine.  
 
Allison Card  19:25 
Oh, wow. 
 
Diana Burgess  19:26 
Yeah, we were trying-- because--  
 
Allison Card  19:29 
--so what happened then? Did you have to call your parents?  
 
Diana Burgess  19:31 
No, we walked home, because-- 
 
Allison Card  19:34 
--did they ever find out about it?  
 
Diana Burgess  19:35 
Oh no. There's a lot of things we used to do. Think after we got tired of the fraternity parties, 
West Virginia is a state that's very close, probably a two hour drive, and you only had to be 18 
then to drink. Instead of 21. We used to go across the state line and drink. So. 
 
Allison Card  20:02 
Were you still living at home during this time?  
 
Diana Burgess  20:04 
Oh, yeah, still in high school. I'm telling you, we were bad.  
 
Allison Card  20:09 
Did your parents ever find out about that?  
 
Diana Burgess  20:11 
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No, if my dad probably knew half the things that I did, I wouldn't be sitting here, because he 
probably would have killed me. And it's funny, because I just didn't want to be identified as, oh, 
you're Sandy's sister, or are you Jeannie's sister, you know? 
 
Allison Card  20:33 
So this was, again, a way to prove that you're your own person.  
 
Diana Burgess  20:36 
Yeah, that's exactly right. They said, Oh, those are some nice girls. I just know you're going to 
not give me any trouble. And that was the principal at the high school. Boy did he-- did I have 
him fooled [laughs]. So, I can remember at graduation, he says, Well, you didn't come through 
here like your sisters did. And he says, but I'll long remember you. Wasn't bad, you know, just 
was the different one, the unique one, I guess. 
 
Allison Card  21:10 
How did that stand out in your family? How did they look at it? 
 
Diana Burgess  21:14 
 Most of them didn't know what I was doing. Vicky, she-- I guess she was just entertained, you 
know, by it. She was kind of sheltered. It's funny, because they always felt like they were 
protecting me, and I just believed I was taking care of all of them. And it's crazy.  
 
Allison Card  21:40 
So which way do you think it was? 
 
Diana Burgess  21:41 
I believe I was taking care of them. Vicky [clears throat] would always-- I wouldn't say always, 
but she-- kind of like she wouldn't stand up for herself, but she would stand up for me. You 
know? Back then, I stood up for myself. I had to. I used to be a tomboy. And speaking of back 
then, this neighborhood where Michael and I used to live, we were the only blacks in that 
neighborhood, maybe-- well, not maybe, five blocks away was the predominantly black 
neighborhood. Now this is a twist. I was nine when I when I moved there, and it's funny, because 
I never really knew black, white, colored, white, however you want to say it, until I was like 13, 
getting ready to start junior high, and I had to fight to be accepted in a black neighborhood. 
 
Allison Card  22:49 
Because you had been raised in a white neighborhood? 
 
Diana Burgess  22:51 
Mm-hmm. Exactly. They said, Oh, what are you doing down here? You don't have no white 
people, no white kids, no white friends to play with, you know, this week? 
 
Allison Card  22:59 
How did that make you feel? 
 
Diana Burgess  23:01 
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Oh, excuse me. Mad. Very mad. 
 
Allison Card  23:04 
Why? What made you mad about it? Because you wanted to be with them or that they wouldn't 
accept you?  
 
Diana Burgess  23:10 
Well, I-- cause-- exactly. They wouldn't accept me. 
 
Allison Card  23:13 
Did that change?  
 
Diana Burgess  23:14 
Yeah.  
 
Allison Card  23:15 
How? 
 
Diana Burgess  23:15 
Well, unfortunately, I had to have a couple fights with the big mild girls. And then once you 
stand your-- hold your guard, then people just tend to respect you, you know, but anybody 
wanted to mess with you. I mean, I got scratched and, here-- and I had long plaits, you know, 
braids.  
 
Allison Card  23:39 
Uh-huh. 
 
Diana Burgess  23:40 
Got pieces of my hair pulled out, and scratches on my face, or on my neck. But like I said, I was 
a tomboy. I used to terrorize the boys in my neighborhood. But basically, I got along with them 
all well. Nut I remember also, when we started having boyfriend and girlfriends, and everybody 
would skip class, or school on Fridays, Monday morning. Here I go. I was the one that forged 
their parents' name for their-- because you had to have a written excuse. 
 
Allison Card  24:22 
Yeah, to turn to the attendants? 
 
Diana Burgess  24:24 
Yeah. So, that was me. So they used to call me Mrs. Dyson, because those were my friends. 
They were Danny and Kenny and Mrs. Findley and Bobby. I think Bobby was my first love.  
 
Allison Card  24:40 
Oh, tell me about him. How old were you?  
 
Diana Burgess  24:45 
12. 
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Allison Card  24:45 
12? And what was he like? 
 
Diana Burgess  24:51 
I don't know, a Rick Nelson-- He was just gorgeous. I was a tomboy, but he and I got along just 
famously. I never kissed him. Came maybe about two inches, because they used to. I used to 
play tap-- touch because it wasn't-- what is it? Tap football? 
 
Allison Card  25:13 
Oh, touch football. 
 
Diana Burgess  25:14 
Yeah. But one time he tackled me, and it's funny, because my mother, they live right behind me, 
like a fence, and we have a fence yard, and he was-- this is going to sound so brutal, but he didn't 
mean any malice behind it. He had one of my hands tied. It was a white picket fence, and he had, 
like a piece of rag wrapped around my wrist, and had it tied to to the fence, and he was sitting on 
this other hand so I couldn't do anything. And I remember he had his knee, like right on my 
forearm, so I couldn't do anything. And he kept coming down close to me. And I was just going, 
[in a mocking voice] na-na-na-na, what are you doing? I mean, what do you know at that age? 
And I used to think-- I mean, years later, well, I think he was dumb. Of course, he was trying to 
kiss me, I wouldn't let him. 
 
Allison Card  26:16 
Right. 
 
Diana Burgess  26:17 
You know? Duh. But he got killed in the Vietnam War. But I often think about Bobby.  
 
Allison Card  26:25 
Did you see him after you guys were kids? 
 
Diana Burgess  26:28 
Yes, in fact, he was married, and he brought his wife to my-- over to my mother and dad's, 
because his family still lived in the neighborhood. And he was-- I had just missed him. And I 
often think, I guess a lot of people think, you know, what would happen if I would have been 
there and met him?  
 
Allison Card  26:50 
Yeah. 
 
Diana Burgess  26:50 
Would he not have gotten killed in Vietnam or true, you can't-- Can we really change fate? You 
know, that's-- I still ask myself that, but I liked Bobby. His name was Robert Gaylord Findley.  
 
Allison Card  27:10 
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What kind of stuff did you guys do when you were young? 
 
Diana Burgess  27:13 
Oh, I remember they used to have these games, not anything like the games nowadays. And the 
game from my neighborhood was-- we called ourselves the Magnificent Four, because it was me, 
Bobby, Kenny and Danny, you know, the four of us. And there was this-- we just trying to find 
out who this kid was. He would dress in a black cape, and had this black cloth across his eyes, 
and a black hat, and he would write Zorro. So we-- [laughs] I remember one summer, we spent 
most of the summer trying to catch that person. We could never catch him. I don't know if 
[microphone is disturbed] they even know who it turned out to be. [Inaudible] no idea. 
 
Allison Card  28:03 
So would you guys see him? 
 
Diana Burgess  28:05 
Oh yeah, we would all go-- 
 
Allison Card  28:07 
--so you could never catch him? 
 
Diana Burgess  28:08 
Could never catch him. Never catch him. It's funny. But by the time I was into drinking, we kind 
of drifted, because they get girlfriends, and I was in with another bunch of kids, you know. 