The Lee MacLellan Family Story
Diana Lynn Councill - GRAND DAUGHTER
Diana Lynn Councill (1948 - ) was the only child of Bill and Sally Councill, and she was and is well loved and beautiful.
She grew up in Bethesda MD, and went to high school at the prestigious Sidwell Friends Private school in Washington DC. Among her classmates were the two daughters of President Richard Nixon, and the grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower.
Diana always wanted a sister, so when she was in high school the Councills welcomed an exchange student from Brazil, RoseMarie Novelii, nicknamed Ia. They become close friends, and still are.
As Diana loved horses, she attended riding camp every summer, and became an accomplished horse woman. She was able to continue that at Sweet Briar College, where she studied French.
After graduation from college she became a stewardess (yeah, that's what the attendants were called at that time) for Pan Am, helped by her French studies at Sweet Briar.
Many of her flights originated in Boston, which is where she met her future husband, a native Bostonian and proud Irishman named George Michael ("Mike") Sweeney (1947 - 2021).
Mike and Diana were married in Bethesda MD in 1976. Mike worked at IBM for many years.
Diana and her high school exchange student from Brazil, RoseMarie Novelii, nicknamed Ia (ee-ahh)
Diana in her Pan Am uniform
Di and Mike have two beautiful girls, Leigh Erin Sweeney and Kerrie Sweeney. Leigh went on to have two children of her own, Carson and Tucker.
Interestingly Di and Mike and their families all ended up in the Charlotte North Carolina area.
Mike Sweeney and his two daughters, Kerry on the left and Leigh on the right, circa 2018.