I have so many wonderful memories of growing up in Fort Worth with Jean, Bill and Diane. The Spiegels and the Harrisons were seemingly inseparable. Jean & Bill and Joy & Seymour talked together, fished together, danced together and dined together, at home or frequently "out on the town." They also threw great parties, complete with the culinary fad of the day, fondue!

Among Bill's passions was his 1955 (or '56?) Ford Thunderbird. Owing to his cleverness and tinkering, Bill had constructed an elaborate mechanism in his garage for raising and lowering the heavy hard top. He was very proud of that invention. Jean was indulgent; she loved riding in that car with her red or white scarf blowing in the wind.

My mom, Joy, and Jean had been girlfriends since childhood. Among so many other interests, they were active in Bill Garber's fledgling Fort Worth Community Theater. They'd vie for roles, and always supported each other. I remember line-reading sessions, complete with a bag of M&Ms to keep me quiet. Joy, Jean and "Garber" were fast friends, as fast as could be. When the adults wanted to party or just visit without their kids around, Diane would be dropped off at our house. My brother Andy, Diane and I would play in the front yard, acting out our young versions of Flash Gordon, his love interest Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov. I wanted to be Flash (what little boy wouldn't?), but Andy was older, so there was no coin toss.

As the Harrisons and Spiegels continued 'living the life', and with the years flying by, Diane grew into a beautiful, warm and supremely intelligent, interesting woman, eventually raising two incredible daughters of her own. Diane had so much of Bill and Jean alive in her, and I believe she was influenced by our mother Joy as well. It's still unbelievable to me how she was deprived of what surely would have been a long and even fuller life. Happily, she will always be remembered warmly by all, as are Bill and Jean.

More of the Harrison's collective and individual stories are written by others here and elsewhere. I just wanted to say how important they were to us, and how much I miss them.

For some reason Diane has been on my mind often lately. I will always cherish the Harrisons and miss them. My heart broke when we lost Diane so suddenly. Our physical reunion plans demolished. My heart still hurts for her girls and for Nelson. I still wish i could meet them. I love Diane, Bill and Jean forever.

Thinking of Jean, Diane and my mom Joy today.

Diane, so many memories of your funny, feisty, ferocious mother came flooding back to me when you wrote that she had passed.

My own illness, followed by laziness, makes this a long delayed tribute to Jean and to Bill. Your family was extremely important to me in my formative years in Fort Worth.
I remember by Mother padding Jean’s tummy for her role as Linda in Death of a Salesman. Our Mother’s gave each other regular perms and spent long hours together in a friendship that lasted long after we moved away. I was the fly on the wall for their yummy conversations. My Dad directed Jean in several plays. After school I’d go to watch endless rehearsals, enthralled mostly by Jean. When I was cast in a musical in 7th grade, it was Jean who did my hair and made it beautiful. And it was Bill who always made me feel like I was not an ugly duckling. You were years younger than I, but I adored you.

A funny memory of you and your Dad comes to me (apologies, Jean) You, Bill and I went to see Carousel and at one point you whispered to your Dad, “Paula’s crying.” He turned to you in tears and said, “She is?” We all laughed about it later.

I love the photos you put up. All three of you so BEAUTIFUL. My time with the Harrison’s was sweet and treasured. 

When we had to move and my heart was broken, your family took me in for the summer. I almost stayed to finish HS in Texas. Who knows how that would have gone! I read some previous tributes and remember Joy and Seymour although I doubt they remember me.

For me, in those years, Jean was larger than life, full of exuberance and passion and I loved her. 

Love Paula (Costy) Russell

PS: My dad passed on Sat. at 98. I never told him that his beloved Jean had died. It would have made him too sad. He'd had a 'date' just days before hospice. So active to the end. He has a FB page.

As friends of Diane, we first met Jean in 2001 in Bradenton Florida. Over the next few years we got to know Jean well and spent several happy Thanksgivings with her and the family and were privileged to share her 90th birthday dinner in Sarasota. We always enjoyed her company and hearing tales of her very full and interesting life. We will miss her.

Sue and Bill Sutton, Cambridge. U.K.

My earliest memories of Jean are black and white snapshots from the ‘40s and early ‘50s. Looking at them spread out in my mind, I see Jean and Bill and Joy and Seymour always together, best friends. Jean and Mom huddled together schmoozing, Bill and Dad building matching hi-fi cabinets on our screened-in patio, the four of them “dressed to the nines” and going out for an evening together – probably to movies and restaurants and parties.

Later in the ‘60s when I was living in New York City, I can picture myself in their large upstate home, sitting around with friends, talking and listening to classical music – music I’d never heard and to this day still takes me back to those visits.

And much later, in the early 2000s, when I drove Jean from Mom’s house to the airport, the last time I saw her, I admitted that I’d had one of my first big crushes on her dating from those early black and white snapshot years and lasting for years after as she morphed from a pretty young woman to a beautiful young middle-aged one. How could I not have had a crush on you, I told her -- you were so pretty are always so kind and sweet to me, and through the years you grew more and more beautiful. It was a late middle-aged man’s bold confession to an aging but still lovely looking woman that seemed both to surprise and please her.

The sadness I feel as I write this for the absence in the world of my mom and dad, for Bill, and now for Jean, is almost unbearable. Thank God for the snapshot memories.

Jean and my mother, Joy Goldstein Spiegel, were best of friends, not only as young girls in Fort Worth, but all through their adult lives, marriages and beyond. Jean, Bill, Joy and Seymour shared many adventures as a foursome. After my Dad's death so many years ago, Jean, Bill and Joy remained fast friends. Jean and her devoted husband Bill were always sweet and kind to the two little Spiegel boys—Ricky and Andy—who I'm sure were sometimes a challenge to entertain. Diane's devotion to her Mother never wavered. She was also a source of comfort and encouragement to me during my own Mother's final years. I'm remembering and thinking of Jean, Bill and Diane with much love!