Matilda "Diane" Heath Cauffman

May 11, 1940 – Jan. 3, 2021

Matilda "Diane" Heath Cauffman passed peacefully from this life on Jan. 3, 2021 in Cody, Wyo., surrounded by her family and loved ones. 

Services will be held Saturday, Jan. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Burlington LDS Church. Burial will be in the Burlington Cemetery.

Diane was born on May 11, 1940, in Greybull, Wyo., to Richmond Elfonso Heath and Anna Marie Ericksen. She was the sixth child born into a family with five older siblings and one younger sibling. 

Diane was a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and always shared her love of Jesus Christ with her family. Many of the traits of our Savior could be seen in the charitable acts of kindness that were given from her over the years. 

Diane was raised on her family farm in Otto, Wyo. During her early years she attended school in Greybull, Wyo., before their family moved to Burlington to finish school after her freshman year of high school. This is where she met the love of her life. Robert William Cauffman, Jr (Bill) and Diane Cauffman were married on Aug.  4, 1956 at the C.C. Cauffman family home in Burlington. Later, they were sealed on July 19, 1962, in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. They enjoyed their 64 years of marriage on this earth. Bill and Diane were rarely apart, and they always cared for each other. 

Diane and Bill settled in Burlington and farmed during the greater part of their lives raising livestock and various crops. Diane always pitched in to help Bill during all these endeavors. She did everything from driving trucks to helping birth calves and lambs. 

Among all the hard work she also cultivated a multitude of talents in which she painted, gardened, tended her orchard of plums, apples, apricots and currents and baked lots of cookies and wheat rolls and always cared for many of the neighbors' hair. There were many times when you could find the neighbors at The Village Hairsmith (her beauty shop) being taken care of by Diane. 

It can be said that she was always doing something and when the kids and grandkids came over, they were immediately recruited and helped with any and all efforts. She always said that she was never content to sit and watch life go by. She always loved hard work, and this has been passed down to her children and to her grandchildren. 

Diane always supported her family in all their endeavors from having her grandchildren live right across the street to attending all sorts of functions and games to tending children and great-grandchildren. She always had a knack to help you feel better with anything that you were working on or working through. Her hearty laugh and cheers will be greatly missed. 

She is preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Richmond Dardenell Heath, Donald Ericksen (Ima) Heath, and sisters Joyce (Jack) Renon Heath Ingersoll, Beverly (Jim) Anna Heath Pederson and many more friends and family. 

She is survived by her husband Robert William Cauffman Jr. (Bill) of Burlington and her children Doug (Lydia) Cauffman of Basin, Carl Cauffman of Burlington, Deloris (Randy) Fox of Burlington and Brad (Liz) Cauffman of Wilmington, Ill. She is also survived by her two sisters Novella Cahill of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Leona Rae Vawter of Buffalo, Wyo.  She is also survived by 19 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family has established an account at Big Horn Federal and requests donations for art supplies.

 

 

 

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