Diane P. Jeffery of Warwick, NY, passed away unexpectedly at Westchester Medical Center on October 8, 2025. She was 68 years old.
Born in Hempstead, New York on Long Island, on September 21, 1957, she was the daughter of Carol (Polek) and the late George Reddy.
Diane worked for Belk Leggett in New York, N.Y. as a retail buyer buying children's clothing from designers and vendors who are always competing for large retail outlets such as Belk to feature their clothing, as well as for Saks Fifth Avenue's corporate headquarters in New York as a men's clothing buyer, and in other roles in the retail industry, such as for the Staten Island Macy’s department store, J. Crew, Popular, and other fashion companies. Her flair for style, particularly in children's clothing, was heralded in the industry where her reputation was renowned. Diane also worked as a teacher in parochial, private, and public schools and as a registrar for the Boy Scouts of America on Hudson Street in Manhattan. Her acumen with numbers made the efficiency of her voluminous tasks appear seamless to others.
With all her accomplishments in her professional life, her most significant career change, the one in which she was happier than in any other role she had had was as Mom and Wife, a lifelong role in which her daily sacrificing for her family's needs was apparent to all. Diane was a pioneering home educator, using her training as an education major at Vassar College to employ a variety of teaching techniques from which she was proud to see her two children thrive. The discussion topic of homeschooling was one of her most enjoyable. Diane also loved crossword puzzles and other avocations that challenge the mind. Achieving successful homeschooling through all grade levels when the majority of curricula was in physical textbooks and not yet as prevalent online was a further challenge she met with aplomb, as was deciding to homeschool without readily-found homeschooling groups nearby, and so she started some of her own, often with themes such as American Sign Language, chess, and Lego Construction.
Diane was one of the two principal founders of Jeffery Educational Consulting, a company that advises parents and provides tutors to students, based in the upstate village of Florida, New York, while being a resident of the greater town of Warwick, New York, for over two decades.
In all Diane did, both personally and professionally, she was an inspiration to others. Her positive daily approaches live on in our thoughts, as she shall always be forever in our hearts. Her family's life with her has been daily blessed.
Diane is survived by her loving husband Thomas Jeffery; son Jonathan Jeffery; daughter Katherine Jeffery, mother Carol Presler of Sayville, NY; sister Patricia Thorne of Holbrook, NY; and brother Christopher Reddy of Centereach, NY. She was predeceased by her father George and her brother Kenneth.
Memorial visitation will be on Saturday, October 18, 2025, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. with a 2:30 p.m. memorial service at Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home, 17 Oakland Avenue, Warwick, NY.
The family requests memorial donations to The Liberty Godparent Home, 124 Liberty Mountain Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24502 or online at godparent.org/donate/