Diana Taylor Isenring, age 77, passed away peacefully on Friday, May 27, 2011 at her rural Roxbury home, surrounded by friends and family. Diana was born in Rhinelander to Lloyd Raymond and Dorothy Craig Taylor. She is survived by her three siblings, Barbara Anderson (Richard Cooper), Craig (Marcie) Taylor and Mary (Donald) Hurst; two sons, Jeff (Robyn) and Kevin Isenring; two grandchildren, Erin (Christina) Isenring and Amber (Steve) Gavin; and three great-grandchildren, Tristan Gavin, Hailey Gavin and Taylor Isenring.


Diana grew up in Rhinelander where her parents ran the first Coca-Cola bottling plant in Wisconsin. She enjoyed downhill skiing and playing the flute and piccolo with the Rhinelander High School Band. She played the solo piccolo part of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" March. As a high school student, she took over and taught the algebra class when the teacher became ill for an extended time. Diana was also the first "Head Lifeguard" at the Hodag Beach in Rhinelander.


Diana attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison. While there, she met her future husband, Larrie Isenring. She and Larrie both worked for many years for the Madison Coca-Cola bottling plant. Diana and Larrie established the first recycling center in Madison at the Coca-Cola plant. Larrie and Diana were both active in the Madison Sports Car Club and enjoyed sports car racing and rallying. While living in Madison, Diana took flying lessons at Morey Field in Madison in a small airplane called an Ercoupe. When she did her solo cross country, she flew to Rhinelander, where Mary, Craig and Barbara put a huge HI! fashioned from bed sheets in the front yard to greet her as she flew over.



The Isenring family moved into the Sauk City area in 1967 when they bought a farm in Roxbury. Diana and Larrie, assisted by Jeff and Kevin, developed the farm into the popular recreation area called Blackhawk Ridge Recreation Preserve. BHR offered camping, canoeing, horseback riding, hay and sleigh rides, cross country skiing, B&B rooms, cabins and a restaurant. Diana was involved in all aspects of the business but took particular pride in the restaurant. Most of this property is now part of Wisconsin's Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. Diana recognized the power of the personal computer in its infancy, using a PC for all business accounting at Blackhawk Ridge well before they became popular.



She also assisted in the establishment of a business started by her brother Craig and his wife Marcie Taylor. Her knowledge of the PC and accounting were instrumental in developing this business, Taylor Race Engineering, Inc. Diana spent the winters of 1990 through 1998 at Plano, Texas with Craig and Marcie helping to develop the business.


Diana retired to a hilltop home near her son's homes and became very interested in genealogy and worked back many generations on both sides of her family. She made a number of research trips to libraries and cemeteries in both the U.S. and Canada. She was also very proud of her connection to the Clan Galbraith of Scotland.


An informal memorial service is scheduled to be held in the Log Cabin on the Blackhawk Unit of the Lower Wisconsin River, formerly Blackhawk Ridge Recreation Preserve, just off Highway 78 South of Sauk City on Thursday, June 2, 2011 between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.