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- From FindaGrave:
Social Reformer and British Royalty. Born The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer, she was the fourth child, third daughter, of Edward John Spencer and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, then Viscount and Viscountess Althorp.
Her parents separated in 1967 and were divorced in 1969.
She was a member of an aristocratic English family that had served the crown for generations. Her father had been an equerry (an officer charged with supervision of the horses belonging to a royal household) to King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth, from 1950-1952 and also to the Queen herself for the first two years of her reign. Her childhood playmates included the Queen's sons, the Princes Andrew and Edward. Upon the death of her grandfather, the 7th Earl Spencer, in 1975,
Diana inherited the title of "Lady" and moved to Althorp, a stately mansion built in 1508 in the English Midlands. It was there where she struck up a conversation with Prince Charles during a shoot in November 1977. There wasn't talk of a relationship between Charles and Diana until late-1980, when Diana worked as a part-time kindergarten teacher in London. It was during this time that the media interest in Diana intensified. She would be trailed by photographers for the rest of her life.
The engagement of Lady Diana and Prince Charles was announced on February 24, 1981, and they were married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981, amidst members of nearly every royal house in the world and a TV and radio audience of 750 million.
This fulfilled a Spencer family dream: An ancestor, also named Lady Diana Spencer 1710-1735, almost married Frederick, Prince of Wales, in the early-1700s. The match was encouraged by her grandmother, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, but was eventually broken up by the wishes of King George II.
Upon her marriage, Diana's full title was "Her Royal Highness, The Princess Charles, Princess of Wales, Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, and Princess of Scotland." Although the style was incorrect, she was popularly referred to as "Princess Diana."
Diana and Charles had two children: Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, born in 1982, and Prince Henry Charles Albert David, born in 1984.
Diana was famous for her groundbreaking fashion choices, but she also broke barriers in the late 1980s when she was the first celebrity to be photographed shaking hands with an AIDS patient without a glove. She touched leprosy patients in the poorest parts of the world without concern for her own health.
Diana and Charles separated in December 1992 and were divorced on August 28, 1996, upon which Queen Elizabeth II stripped her of the title of "Her Royal Highness" and decreed she be addressed in the future as "Diana, Princess of Wales."
Upon her separation, and after her divorce, Diana redefined herself: She cut the number of charities she supported to a handful and, in the last year of her life, became passionate about banning antipersonnel land mines in war-weary Third World Countries.
She died in an automobile accident in the underpass of the Place D'Alma Bridge in Paris, France, shortly after midnight on Sunday, August 31, 1997, along with Dodi Fayed, son of Harrods Department Store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, and driver Henri Paul. A fourth passenger, Dodi's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, survived the crash, but required extensive plastic surgery for his injuries. The Flame of Liberty sculpture near the site of the accident serves as an unofficial monument to Diana. There is also a memorial to both Diana and Dodi Fayed erected at Harrods Department Store in London.
Bio by: Donna Di Giacomo
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1961 - 1997 (36 years)
