Every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, and most summers, Dianne Bellush’s house would be full of visitors. At the winter holidays, they’d gather around her large dining room table and share a meal. When the weather was nice, the adults would sit on her screened porch for hours, while generations of children ran through her backyard, looking for fireflies.
For nearly a half-century, Dianne was the heart of those gatherings. Her home was the perennial venue, and she would always open her doors to visiting relatives.
“She ran a bed and breakfast for her brothers and sisters and their families,” said her sister, Cindy Fountaine.
Dianne Ruth Bellush died Thursday morning at her home in Bedford, Ind. with her husband of 56 years and daughter at her side. She was 78.
Dianne was born in Elkhorn, Wisc., and moved with her family to Bedford in 1949. She graduated from Bedford High School, where she was homecoming queen, in 1962. She attended Indiana University, graduating in 1965, and later returned to the Bloomington campus to earn a master’s degree in education.
After graduating from IU, she married her high school sweetheart, Jim Bellush, whom she met in the first grade. She then began her teaching career in Terre Haute, where she helped pay for her husband’s college education. The Bellush couple then returned to Bedford where Dianne began teaching in Bedford schools. She taught at Stalker Elementary for most of her 40-year teaching career. She was awarded teacher of the year as well as other accolades. She is remembered for how much she cared for her students.
“She was positive, kind-hearted, and gentle-natured,” said her husband, Jim Bellush.
She enjoyed long walks — sometimes around Bedford, and sometimes at Spring Mill State Park — and trips to the beach. On one such vacation to Nags Head, N.C., she caught a baby shark with her bare hands, posing for a photo before tossing it back into the surf.
A member of the First United Methodist Church of Bedford, she sang in the choir for many years. She also loved reading — especially while sitting on her screened porch — and accompanied her children and grandchildren on regular excursions to the library. She spent countless hours in her garden, which she meticulously groomed each summer into brilliant blooms.
She was a good listener. She was never quick to judge.
From taking care of her parents in their final years to hosting those large, loud family gatherings in her home, Dianne was “the best of us,” her family says, every day of her life.
“My family sure means everything to me,” Dianne once wrote in her journal. “I’ve never really traveled much as I’ve gotten older, but the wonderful thing I’ve discovered is that I don’t need to ever travel to enjoy being alive and to see little things I’ve never seen before.”
She is preceded in death by her parents, Dr. Thomas and Ruth Fountaine of Bedford.
She is survived by her husband Jim Bellush of Bedford, her daughter Kristine Bellush and Jon Aiken of Cincinnati, son JT and Stacey Bellush of Bloomington, son Michael and Jessica Bellush of Bedford, and grandchildren Maddie, Alex, and Nick Bellush of Bloomington, Tyler and Ben Bellush and Ava, Addy, and Audrey Bunch of Bedford.
She is also survived by sister Suzanne Fountaine of Columbus, Ind., brother Thomas II and Tamra Fountaine of State College, Pa., and sister Cindy Fountaine and Paul Scudder of Arlington, Texas, as well as many nieces and nephews who adored her.
Dianne will be remembered at a visitation from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, followed by a funeral service at 6 p.m., at the Day & Carter Mortuary, 1133 Lincoln Avenue in Bedford.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association at https://www.alz.org/indiana/donate.
