Diane Hegarty Hall (LaVey)'s Obituary
Diane LaVey was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1942. After Diane's father died, her mother brought the family to San Francisco, and later remarried Joseph Von Joo, who together had more children. Diane had a lifelong interest in the occult. As a child she entered a church and challenged god to strike her down. The blonde beauty was spotted by Anton LaVey when the SeaVue theater manager took his employee, "usherette" Diane, to Mori's Point, a restaurant and roadhouse overlooking the Pacific Ocean. LaVey later left his first wife for Diane. They lived at the famous "Black House" and Diane was hostess for his early Magic Circle meetings, and partner in creating the Church of Satan in 1966. During this time Diane knew many celebrities , such as Sammy Davis Jr., Jayne Mansfield, Jacques Vallee, Clyde Beatty, and Kenneth Anger, the grandfather of Indy filmmaking, and those they worked with when making the film The Devils Rain.
She did most of the Church's administrative, press and member relations work. She appeared in many documentaries of Church rituals, and scenes of home life, and with their pet lion, Togare. As common at the time she did equal work but let Anton take the spotlight.. She raised Anton LaVey's eldest daughter Karla, then their own daughter Zeena Schreck, born in 1963.
As Church of Satan founding High Priest and High Priestess, Anton and Diane LaVey hit the front pages around the globe and network TV news with the first (public) Satanic wedding, and then with the first (public) Satanic baptism for 3 year old daughter Zeena. Diane was a close collaborator with Anton LaVey in formulating policy and in running the Church. It accomplished many advances in the rights of non-mainstream religion, such as recognition of rights by the military in cemetery markings, and to have full funeral honors for members. It may be the only church that on principal refused to apply for tax-exempt status. Anton said "they're going to call us Satanists anyway. so let's call it the Church of Satan, a very 1960's in-your-face move, like flag-burning. That brought great publicity, but also much of hate. I feel the name may have been a mistake, as their concept of Satan is far removed that of most people, which is something too hard to overcome. It has nothing to do with "evil." The LaVey's were actually rather straight-laced, opposing things like drug abuse, personal abuse and advocated doing good to all deserving it. Diane never disrobed in public. They supported the police.
After leaving Anton LaVey in 1984, she had a varied career in apartment manager, private investigator, technical writer, editor, medical transcriptionist, and handwriting expert. She was Chair of the Graphological Society of San Francisco.
She was known to many of her friends to be most kind and charitable, and a lover of animals. She became a mother to grandson Stanton Lavey for many years, and loving grandmother to his sons Richard and Kenneth LaVey.
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