Well-known Los Gatos business woman Diane Ogilvie

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http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_19084435




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Well-known Los Gatos businesswoman Diane Ogilvie dies
By Judy Peterson


jpeterson@community-newspapers.

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Diane Ogilvie and her husband, Bruce, share a happy moment at the...
(George Sakkestad/SVC archive)«1»
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Read or sign a guest book in memory of Eva Diane Violet Ogilvie
A woman whose influence in Los Gatos spanned decades and who in later
years was a well-known personality about town, died on Oct. 3 after a
brief illness. Eva "Diane" Violet Ogilvie was 92.

Ogilvie was surrounded by members of her large family, with her
faithful Belgian shepherd service dog, Ella, also at her side.

Daughter Terri Chistiansen described her mother as a "strong-willed
risk taker" who mentored many up and coming Los Gatos businesswomen at
a time when women in business were not the norm. "They used to call
her 'Spitball' because she got in their faces," Christiansen said.

"You have to be a risk-taker and owe money," Ogilvie once said about
finding success. "A woman can do whatever a man can do--just do it
yourself," she advised.

In her last years, while taking daily walks in downtown Los Gatos,
Ogilvie was sometimes stopped by people who wanted to thank her for
her acts of kindness. "She was very compassionate," granddaughter
Tandem Hayden recalled. "She helped a lot of people in this town get
back on their feet. Los Gatos was her heart. She loved this town."

Among the Los Gatos businesses Ogilvie owned were Pigalle Restaurant,
La Strada, Sir Toby's sandwich shop, Toby's Motel and Le Poisson
antique store. Her most recent endeavor was the Hotel Los Gatos, which
opened in 2002. "I think the Hotel Los Gatos was her crowning
achievement," Christiansen said.

In 1977, Ogilvie purchased The


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Cats Restaurant off Highway 17 and, just days before her death, looked
forward to eating there when it reopened. "She talked about the new
owners and said, 'We're going to go in there on the first night and
support them,' " Christiansen quoted her mother as saying.

An exact date for the reopening of The Cats has not been set, but it
is expected to happen soon.

Ogilvie's early singing career started in her hometown of Alameda.

"I was 4 when I first sang," she recalled in a previous interview with
the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. "It was at my mother's funeral and it was
something about angels." She kept singing, through the trauma of her
father's alcoholism, the loneliness of boarding with relatives who
resented her, the death of her aunt and the responsibility of running
the house for her father and brother at the age of 12.

Ogilvie dropped out of high school and found her way to Hollywood,
where she met the man of her dreams at the Palladium Dance Hall. "I
saw this gorgeous hunk, and I said, 'That's the man I'm going to
marry,' " Ogilvie said.

That was Bruce Ogilvie, who was in the Army at the time. She called
him her "prince."

"They had a fairy tale romance for 62 years," daughter-in-law Lynn
Stanghellini said. In the last days of her life, Ogilvie would look at
pictures of Bruce and tell her family how he was the most handsome and
kindest man in the world. "She used to tell me, 'When I go to heaven,
if you see angels flying out you know Grandpa's been bad,' "
granddaughter Jodi Raich said.

Hayden wistfully recalled the night before her grandmother died. "We
got to have a really good conversation on Sunday night," she said. "We
looked at pictures, looked at her life and we played show tunes for
her."

Chistiansen said her mom sang the types of songs that bring Judy
Garland to mind. Ogilvie sang all over Europe while her husband, who
had left the Army, was busy getting a Ph.D. in London.

It was at that time that daughter Terri and son Doug were born, so her
singing supported the family.

After Bruce Ogilvie finished school, the family moved back to the Bay
Area and Ogilvie continued her singing career in San Francisco and Las
Vegas. She even opened for Wayne Newton at the Sands Hotel.

While best known in Los Gatos for her business endeavors, in recent
years she was a familiar sight at Vasona Park. Several times a week,
her battered 10-speed could be seen along the paths, her pure white
ponytail streaming behind her. "Two years ago I took her on a 12 mile
bike ride," Christiansen said.

Travelers on Highway 17 might have spotted her, too, driving a dented
pickup truck, spewing cracked corn for the peacocks she kept at the
family's 30-acre homestead, The Cats Estate, located behind The Cats
Restaurant. When the Ogilvies purchased the estate in 1955, they named
the sentinel cat statues Leo and Leona. Several family members still
live there today. "Her main goal was that all the family stay together
and be happy," Christiansen said.

Bruce Ogilvie died previously. She is survived by her daughter, Terri
Ogilvie Christiansen; her son, Doug Ogilvie; five grandchildren,
Tandem Ogilvie Hayden, Ariel and Morgan Ogilvie, Kim Bridgford and
Jodi Raich; three great-grandchildren, James, Sean and Laila; and her
daughters-in-law, Lynn Stanghellini and Leslie Ogilvie.

A celebration of Ogilvie's life will take place at the Hotel Los
Gatos, 210 E. Main St., on Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. in the Monte Sereno Room.

Donations in Diane Ogilvie's honor can be made to Pets in Need at
petsinneed.org/donations.