Page A2-The Chronicle, Thursday, October 24, 1
Diane: Y ou knew h<
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"She was a person who did anything for
anybody," says Phoebe Dingle, Diane's cousin.
' "She was always there."
Adds high school boyfriend Carl Tatum: "She
was a girl who was always cheering, no matter
what."
On Sept. 16, less than a month after her 20th birthday,
Diane was found dead in her apartment of a
gunshot wound to the chest from a .22-caliber
pistol. Diane lay as if asleep across her rented bed.
Police believe she committed suicide. Why she
killed herself, if she did, has everybody puzzled.
r-x - ...
LMane was tne person unpopular girls love to
hate. She had everything going for her. Good looks.
A car. Athletic ability. A boyfriend. Talent and
popularity.
With all of that, what could go wrong? What
could be so drastic, ask friends, that it prevented
her from seeking help? Why could a person who
brought joy to others not find that joy when she
needed it?
The answers to most of those questions lie buried
with Diane. Meanwhile, those left behind try to re
examine meir reiationsmps with her. Could 1 have
helped her, many ask? Was she trying to tell me
something?
Tumbling Finances
Partial answers to some of the questions may lie
with Johnson. Diane spent the last days of her life
with him. Diane, says Johnson, was burdened with
a combination of family and financial problems.
"Diane couldn't pay her rent," says Johnson.
"She got an eviction notice that said she had to be
out of her apartment by the 15th. Her roommate
didn't know about the eviction. She (Diane) didn't
want her to know she was having financial problems.
"Plus she worried about her mother. Her mother
had a lump on her breast and needed surgery to
have it removed. Diane used to say to me, 'Curt,
when my mother goes in the hospital, what will I
do? If something happens to my mother, what will 1
do?"
Betty Robinson, Diane's mother, says she and
Diane had talked about her medical problems, but
Diane didn't seem preoccupied with them.
"That wasn't weighing heavily on her at all,'51
says Mrs. Robinson. "She was concerned. She told
me to go on and get my health straightened out and
she said she wanted to get another job to help me
with some of my bills when 1 was in the hospital."
Mrs. Robinson says she knows nothing about
Diane's financial problems. Diane, she says, was interested
in moving from her present two-bedroom
apartment into a one-bedroom unit in another
apartment complex, but not because of finances.
"Diane was trying to better herself," says Mrs.
Robinson. "In October, she was going to move."
As an only child, Diane had a special relationship
with her mother. Her parents were divorced.
"Wo mora o ?? n nr.:
" v ttviv a ivani, sap ivtl), I\UUlIlSUn. Uiane
drove a bus in high school. Bus 88. She drove the
bus and I would clean it out. She would say, 'Momma,
that's my job.' But 1 wanted her to have the
This chancellor we
can relax."
On this morning, as has been the case since
Thompson took over as chancellor in August, he
has been busy. Some of his responsibilities have
been out of the scope of what most of us consider
chancellor's duties. But for Thompson, they are
important to his orientation at Winston-Salem
State.
For instance, while students were away for fall
break, the school held its first-ever employee appreciation
breakfast. And the coffee man,
believe it or not, was Chancellor Thompson.
Picture this:
"Give me a cup of coffee with two sugars,"
the woman announces to the man behind the coffee
dispenser, wearing a large white apron over
his pinstriped blue suit.
The man, Cleon Thompson - everybody's
boss at WSSU - graciously fills the order, drawing
coffee quickly from the institution-size
dispenser. He then looks at the woman and says,
"I believe you need Sweet n' Low."
Or this:
At the year's - and Thompson's ? first board
of trustees meeting, board members are discussing
an issue, and before making a final decision,
ask Thompson what he thinks.
Thompson, with all the innocence of a thirdgrader
interrupted during a daydream, replies:
"Excuse me, I wasn't listening. What were you
talking about?"
It would seem to take a bold, or crazy man, to,
during his first official meeting with his policymaking
board, admit that he simply wasn't
listening. Thompson is neither. Whether it's
pouring coffee, addressing the University of
North Carolina's Board of Governors or having
lunch with WSSU's janitorial staff, Thompson
does it all with the same easygoing style. Maybe
it's because of the ulcer he got while serving as
the number one black in the UNC hierachy,
responsible for presenting the black viewpoint to
UNC and explaining to blacks UNC's position.
Thompson's duties with UNC as vice president
for student affairs and special programs came
during UNC's decade-long struggle with the
y
985
?r and you didn't
cleanest bus. She kept me busy, and I enjoyed every
minute of it."
Her father, who had remarried and had another
family, died when Diane was in high school.
Because the two had never been close, her father's
death didn't seem to bother her, says Felecia
Carter, Diane's high school friend.
"All of us in the group didn't have our fathers
living at home," says Carter. "So, when Diane's
father died, it didn't seem to bother her. 1 mean, it
didn't hurt school (grades) or anything."
All Seemed Well
Mrs. Robinson says she talked to Diane hours
before she was found dead. To her, says Mrs.
Robinson, Diane was her jolly self. She talked
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mother to the doctor to have her blood pressure
checked. She talked about possibly running for
homecoming queen and needing something to wear.
"She was in the best of moods," says Mrs.
Robinson.
Johnson says he knows nothing of Diane's plans
to go to Greensboro later that afternoon.
Mrs. Robinson says it wasn't his business to
know everywhere Diane went.
Diane spent that last day trying to get the money
together she needed for rent, says Johnson. Diane
had written a check for August's rent, but the check
bounced, he savs It u/?? K Have ;? /-?
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and Diane hadn't paid the September rent.
After talking with the manager at Wessex Apartments,
Diane had been given until 1 p.m. to get the
money for the August rent and until the end of the^
week to pay September's rent. Diane was confident
she could get the money, says Johnson.
When Diane came by, says the manager, Teressa
McColl, she was her regular self.
"I didn't know her real well, but she always had a
nice attitude," says McColl.
McColl says she can't comment about Diane's
finances.
After Diane's visit with McColl, Johnson says,
her spirits picked up.
"She called a family member who she knew had
the money, but he said he didn't," says Johnson,
who says he didn't have the money to help her.
"When Diane got off the phone with him, she was
depressed. It was getting closer to 1 o'clock, and she
_A?I1 J J - I -
sun aian i nave tne money.
"She was worried that she would have to go to
jail for writing a bad check and that she would be
put out. She said to me, 'Curt, I'm not a bad person.'
Then she started crying. *1 can't afford to be
in jail,' she said. 'I don't want my credit messed
up.' "
James Lewis, head of security at WSSU, said
Diane came to him a week before she was found
dead and told him about her financial problems.
Diane, whose college work-study job was in the
security office, went to the same church in
Greensboro that Lewis attends.
"She came by and was telling me about a money
problem, but 1 didn't think it would lead to this,"
says Lewis.
}ars an anron From Pi
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
over the system's desegregation plan.
Then again, maybe it's just his way of doing
business.
"I believe in making people happy and comfortable,"
says Thompson. "If you are satisfied
and happy working here, you will do much more
work than I could think to ask you to do. But if
you are not satisfied, relaxed, at ease and comfortable,
you will only do what I ask you to do
and you won't do that right.
"No one can pay them (the employees) to do
the work. Everybody thinks they are worth a
million dollars. We have to pay them what we
can afford and then create the atmosphere where
they will do a good jo
But Thompson's laid-back style shouldn't be
confused with laxness,, he says.
"Oh, I'm very much about my priorities,"
says Thompson, drawing on a cigarette. "The
only way to get things done is to have priorties
and mine are in order."
Thompson and the school are in the midst of
implementing a four-point program. The first
matter of business, he says, is a complete self
study of the general education curriculum. A
faculty committee, with the help of outside consultants,
will evaluate the general studies curriculum
and remove any courses that are not
preparing the students for higher-level major
courses and add any new courses that are needed.
Second, Thompson is studying all areas in
which the school presently offers majors and
determining if all are up to national standards.
For example, although the school is accredited
by the Southern Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools, as most universities are,
most individual departments do not have national
accreditation.
Third, Thompson wants to recruit more
academic high-achievers to the school, but not at
the expense of turning down lower-level
students.
44It doesn't matter if you have the best faculty
from all over the world," he says. 44If the ma
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From Page A1
Having the apartment seemed to be a strain on
her, says Lewis.
"If she had stayed on campus, she wouldn't have
had those financial problems," he says. "But she
left here because of the visitation policy."
Since the summer, Diane had worked at a photo
processing shop, but quit, says Johnson, because of
management changes.
Tavondia Williams, one of Diane's best friends
from high school, says she talked to Diane the
Wednesday before she died.
"When I called her, she was baking a banana
pudding," says Williams. "We talked about her
finding another job, and she talked about needing
t_ _i l. * ....
ncr cnccK irom unanciai aid to pay some bills."
Diane didn't seem particularly worried about
anything, says Williams. As the conversation progressed,
Diane talked about her mother's health
and about Williams coming to State's homecoming.
"Her mother told me to tell Di that she had talked
to the preacher and everything was fine," says
Williams. "The last thing she said to me was, 4Love
me?' I answered *yes,' and she said, *1 love you,
too.' Then we hung up."
Putting On A Smile
Although Diane talked with family and friends
the week before her death, their inability to notice
anything wrong with her shows Diane's ability to
hide her true feelings from them, says Johnson. In
fact, says Johnson, Diane talked about death and
even tried to commit suicide the weekend before she
died.
"The Sunday night before she died, she didn't
sleep well," says Johnson. "She sat up in bed and
asked me, 'What do people at the hospital do for
people who take an overdose?' Then she said, 'I
tried it once before. Next time 1 will succeed.' "
Diane then got out of bed and went to the store,
her boyfriend says. When she came back she had a
box of 16 sleeping pills. She poured all of the pills
out of the bottle onto the nightstand, he says.
Johnson says he then sent Diane into the kitchen to
get him a glass of Coke. While she was gone, he
placed all but two of the pills inside his pillowcase.
"When she came back, she looked all over for the
pills," says Johnson. "I told her I had them and she
kept insisting that I give them to her. Then she went
over to the closet and said, *1 got something you
want.' That's when 1 knew she had the gun."
The gun, the .22-caliber pistol Diane was killed
with, belonged to Johnson.
"The gun was there at Diane's request," says
Johnson. "She asked for protection. She was
frightened to be there alone at tight."
Johnson says he got the gun from Diane on Sunday
night and removed all six bullets. The gun was
sensitive, he says. In fact, in late July, Johnson
says, he shot himself in the thigh while cleaning it.
As for how Diane could have killed herself if he
had removed all of the bullets, Johnson says, others
could have been lying around the apartment.
Diane continued to talk about death that night
Johnson says.
"She kept saying, *1 don't have nothing to live
ige A1
jority of the students need remedial courses, it
won't work. We need to mix the student body.
Peer pressure is more effective than studentteacher
relationship."
Twenty-five WSSU faculty members as well as
alumni from across the nation have agreed to
serve as volunteer recruiters, says Thompson. In
addition, Thompson wants more older students
on campus.
Fourth, Thompson has plans to improve the
school's library by enlarging the present structure
and increasing its holdings.
"Once we get all those four basic components
in place, then we are on the ball," says Thomp
llt.l. - - 1
son. u s my jod 10 maice sure tnat tnose components
are there, then the students are out on
?their own,
"If a student comes in here and says she flunked
a course, I want to be able to say you have a
problem. Now I can't say that. I'm not so sure
we are doing all we can to make sure the students
have an atmosphere that is conducive for learning.
After working 11 years for the University of
North Carolina's General Administration,
Thompson says he knows what North Carolina
expects of its educational institutions and he intends
to make sure Winston-Salem State is
meeting and exceeding the-state's expectations.
"I've worked on both sides of the street," says
Thompson. "I know what North Carolina is asking.
They want quality.
"Winston-Salem State has quality now, but it
has been suffering under an image problem. We
have the best computer science program in the
state. We have one of the best nursing schools in
the state and our business school is off the
horizon of greatness. But how many people
know that?"
Thompson said his goal is to make WinstonSalem
State a Harvard.
'The only difference between Harvard and
Winston-Salem State is that* somebody said Harvard
was good - and they got a billon dollars in
the bank," says Thompson. "I went to Harvard
and expected to be anointed overnight. I want to
I
c*
for,' " says Johnson.14 4I can't face Venus (Townsend,
her roommate). If I was dead, so many people
would be happy,' she said. Her mother could get
the $10,000 life insurance policy.
"Then she said, "Curt, why is it when I need
help, nobody is ever there, but I'm always there to
help others? I thought the Lord helped people. 1
need help. Where is the Lord?"
Johnson says he was finally able to comfort
Diane and get her to believe that things would be all
right the next day -- Monday.
"I was there to stop her 6nce, but I wasn't there
the last time," says Johnson.
Monday for Diane, says Johnson, was like a
repeat of Sunday night. She tried to get the money,
but couldn't. She didn't go to class that day. She
didn't put on any clothes, and she didn't comb her
hair. Johnson says he left Diane about 7:30 p.m. to
go play basketball. He never saw her alive again, he
says.
Diane was found by her roommate, Venus Townsend.
According to Johnson. Townsend ram* infn
the apartment and was talking to Diane as usual.
She even went into the bedroom twice asking her
questions. It was not until she pulled back the
covers and saw a small hole, surrounded by blood,
that she knew something was wrong, says Johnson.
Townsend has since moved out of the apartment
and onto campus. Fellow students say she is fine.
But she doesn't want to talk about Diane's death.
Shock Waves
News of Diane's death shocked her friends, they
say, because they noticed no signs of problems.
"She seemed firmly footed in terms of where she
wanted to go," says Dr. Constance Johnson, who
taught Diane general psychology at WSSU. "If
there had been something there, I would have noticed
it. With my training, I can pick up on things like
that."
Says Diane's high school guidance counselor,
Rosa Bowden: "I was really upset to hear that
tragic story of a good student. She was seemingly
well-adjusted. I thought she was a model student.
I'm so sorry that her life was so short. I didn't feel
she was the type who would give in to her
problems."
Adds Judv DesDer. Diane's hioh crhnoi
chccrleading adviser: "She was very creative and a
hard worker. I was shocked to find out about her
death. The last I heard, she was doing fine."
Sometimes, says Curtis Johnson, students feel
too embarrassed to seek professional help.
"Students have problems so personal they are
embarrassed to seek, anyone out," says Johnson.
"Diane didn't want people to know she couldn't
pay her rent."
Because of the questions surrounding Diane's
death, Johnson says he has been the victim of insults
and accusations. Some people believe he prompted
Diane's suicide. Others imply that he may
have killed her.
"People said she did it because of me," says
T^L _
junnson. inai s a ne. i ve oeen getting a lot of
Please see page A14
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make Winston-Salem State good. I want people
knocking on the door wanting to get in."
But Thompson admits that what he has is a vision
and that he's not quite sure how to make vision
reality.
"1 don't know how to put it all together, but
part of it is having the right people with the right
attitude and that's what we are working on."
Thompson SaVS he knows fher* ar*
standing by waiting for him to make a mistake,
or waiting for him to make drastic changes so
they can say they won't go along with his plans.
And Thompson says he wants those people to
know that mistakes w/7/come. But not before the
successes, he hopes.
In addition to Thompson's four-point pro?gram,
he also has other goals outlined, such as
increasing emrollment, both in- and out-of-state;
renovating the former Anderson High School into
WSSU's continuing education center and
designing an Afro-American cultural center that
establishes Winston-Salem State, once and for
all, he says, as a black school. The cultural
center, says Thompson, will be a monument to
all black people and salute the successes of all
blacks beginning with the kings and queens of
Africa.
"Once we build the center, we can close the
book on the question, 4Is Wins ton-Salem State a
black school?' and go on and have education,"
says Thompson. "We won't have to defend
ourselves any longer. It will be here for all the
world to see."
If all goes well, Thompson estimates that he
will be at WSSU for 12 vwr? ? tHot*c
? ? J ?? ? * ??** VV1IVI1 J VOIW
law says he must retire. But between now and
then, Thompson says, he has a lot of work to do.
"The time for me to come here was right," he
says. "I haven't met one person that does not
want to make this institution better and the town
is receptive and supportive of the institution. If I
fail here, it is my fault.
"My mother called recently and asked, 'How
is it down there?' And I told her the same thing.
It's a great opportunity and, if I fail, it's my
fault."
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