Diana Pisner Walker ends teaching career

Author Diana Pishner Walker is ending one of her other talents, teaching.

She wrote:

“I am resigning from the Marion County Board of Education as of October 2nd. Funny how life takes you down so many different paths and, when you get on the right one, you know it in your heart. I hate the fact that I will be leaving my East Dale family and those little faces of students that I've grown so fond of.

Diane Pishner Walker

“I have been a MCBOE employee for 25 years, but with 11 of those years being a substitute, I don't have enough years to retire. However, I will be visiting many schools and sharing stories and signing books ❤ Follow your heart.”

When I asked Diane for more details about her years in Marion County’s schools, she told me that she began where I began my education, at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Monongah, where the nuns whacked me with the one- and two-hole paddles and gave me a foundation that helped me through a 43-year newspaper career.

I will always be grateful to those nuns, in particular Sister Agnes, who – when she wasn’t speeding past our home on Church Street in her brother’s Jeep – whetted my appetite for writing.

Diane wrote:

“I was a kindergarten aide at Saints Peter and Paul in Monongah and taught Religion to K, 1st and 2nd there. When Saints Peter and Paul closed, I was hired as an aide in Marion County where I subbed for 11 years. My first job was at North Marion and then East Dale where I have been for 11 years.”

Diana was born and reared in Clarksburg. She is a 1977 graduate of Clarksburg Notre Dame High School and Fairmont State.

Diana and her husband’s children are Curt, Chris and Courtney. Her siblings are Anna Pishner Harsh and Stephano Pishner.

Her books include “I Don’t Want to Sit in the Front Row Any More,” was a memoir based on the loss of her parents, Anna and Louis Pishner; and “Spaghetti and Meatballs! My family is Italian!” The latter received honorable mention in the Hollywood Book Festival.

Another Diane book, “Hopping to America: A Rabbit’s Tale of Immigration,” was turned into a play by the Vintage Theatre Company in Clarksburg.

Three Monongah and North Marion high schools’ graduates also are authors: Linda Tomlinson Stevenski, Class of 1955; Annette Rose (Bonasso), North Marion Class of 1980; and Lisa Myers McCombs, Class of 1947.

My sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, the widow of David Straight who lives in Rivesville, has her story about Monongah’s Flying Nun (on a Jeep), Sister Agnes:

"When Dave & I went to Monongah to visit Mom & Dad, we usually met Sister Agnes on the White Rock Road (U.S. 19) driving the Jeep.  Once Winter started, she had chains put on the Jeep.  She never took them off until Spring. 

“So on a pretty day we would see her bouncing along & the clanking of the chains as they hit the road!  We always got a big laugh that she didn't seem to mind the noise & the rough ride. 

“Jackie”

 

Sister Agnes was an original in so many ways. God bless her. And hopefully she'll bless me and forgive all my transgressions that made impressions on the punishment paddles and on my behind.