Diana Marie (Farrar) Carris, 88, of South Burlington, died on August 10, 2026, in Berlin, Vermont.

She was born September 20, 1937, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the only child of Roland "Jerry" Farrar and Dorothy Lynch Farrar. She attended Nativity School in Saint Paul, graduated from Derham Hall High School, and had completed two years at the University of Minnesota when she married Barry Carris in Saint Paul in October 1958.

The first dozen years of their marriage moved them often, following Barry's service in the Navy and then his career with American Hospital Supply Corporation: Brunswick, Maine; Duluth and Saint Paul, Minnesota; White Plains, New York; and Glenview and Buffalo Grove, Illinois, before they settled in Lake Forest, Illinois. When her son entered high school, Diana announced that she intended to finish college before he did, and she did, earning her bachelor's degree from Barat College in 1977, at thirty-nine. In those same years she and Barry opened two small businesses in Lake Forest: a clock shop, the Clockworks, and then a bookstore of her own, Farrar & Company, named for her family. She was an avid, lifelong reader who spent much of her life in libraries and used bookstores, and for many years a member of P.E.O., the philanthropic educational organization that helps women return to school — a cause she had lived herself.

In 1981 they sold the businesses and moved to Vermont, fulfilling a long-held wish to live in small-town New England. Diana found work almost immediately at Hackett, Valine & MacDonald, and the two of them were welcomed by a community that became lifelong friends. They lived first in South Burlington, then built a home in Charlotte where they stayed for many years, before downsizing to a townhouse and later a cape in South Burlington. Much of their life together was spent outdoors — canoeing, camping, sailing, hiking and cross-country skiing — and after Barry's retirement they traveled throughout the United States and abroad, to Europe, Central America and as far as New Zealand. More recently she was a member of the Friends of the South Burlington Library.

Barry, her husband of fifty-four years, predeceased her in June 2013. She is survived by her son, David Carris of Montpelier; her former daughter-in-law, Anne LaBrusciano of Marshfield; and three grandchildren, Ruby LaBrusciano-Carris and Ella LaBrusciano-Carris, both of Portland, Oregon, and Theo LaBrusciano-Carris of San Francisco.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 10, 2026, at St. John Vianney Church, 160 Hinesburg Road, South Burlington, with the Rev. Timothy Naples officiating, followed by a reception for family and friends in the parish hall. The Rite of Committal will be private.

Memorial gifts in support of the Vermont Chapter of P.E.O. and women's education may be made to the P.E.O. Foundation, 3700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50312