Diane Selwood

Diane (Duckenfield) Selwood, 82, of Barto, PA, passed away on Monday, December 9, 2024. Born and raised in Kensington, Philadelphia, Diane moved frequently as a child. As a result, the concept of home became extremely important to her, and she created a beautiful one in her beloved Berks County, PA. Her home was her strength and her touchstone, and by her request, it's where she stayed till the end.

Diane was brave, wise, driven, talented, kind, generous, caring, quick to laugh, and surrounded by friends. The first in her family to attend college, she graduated from Kutztown University, and began her career as a teacher at Longswamp Elementary, keeping in touch with former students, and delivering fastnachts to her janitor for decades afterward.

She loved and worried about people, and her work expressed that. As a daycare teacher, she defied rules to distribute lunches that would otherwise have gone to waste to families without sufficient food. At the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, she inspected daycare centers for safety. She volunteered with Meals on Wheels, worked in agencies that paired seniors who needed work with jobs, and after retirement took a pre-dawn coffee shift at her beloved Wawa, giving cheerful words and her bright smile to the earliest drivers.

She had a sharp and creative mind, and accomplished much by instinct. The pinnacle of her career was Duckenfield's, the high-quality women's clothing mail order retailer she created, that in the late 1980s set new standards for quality and customer care. She traveled the world sourcing the catalog, and used its economic power to help other women build successful businesses, creating a market for their handmade goods.

Diane never met a challenge she was unequal to-including driving armed Klansmen from Duckenfield's General Store with a broom-and she excelled at everything that interested her. She was an herbalist and a Master Gardener (and devotee of the Philadelphia Flower Show), an award-winning baker and cake decorator, and a very accomplished cook, who hosted absolute feasts at her annual holiday parties. She became a skilled watercolorist, filling her home with art, and was a master of disguise, who loved planning elaborate surprises for her grandchildren at Halloween.

Diane is predeceased by her parents, her brother, Jim, and the love of her life, Ed Kantner. She is survived by her children, Valerie Skinkus, Danielle [Mike] Jupina, and Michael Skinkus, as well as her grandchildren, Maddy and Ben.

She was a fighter to the end, and finally has peace. She will be missed.

Services will be held privately by the family. In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, https://phsonline.org/, go to the Flower Show with her in your heart, or do something kind for a person in need.

Lutz Funeral Home, Inc., 2100 Perkiomen Avenue, Reading, PA 19606 is handling arrangements. For online condolences, please visit www.LutzFuneralHome.com