Diane E. Estrada

We are letting everyone know that Mrs. Diane E. Estrada passed away

peacefully at her home in Huntington Beach, CA, on April 4th, 2026. She

was 80 years old.

She was born in North Carolina to M. Sgt. Rush F. Herring (USMC)

and Jean A. (Sherwood) Herring. She was the eldest of three children and

spent time moving from place to place, including Hawaii, California,

Tennessee, and Oklahoma, as part of a military family. They eventually

settled in Newport Beach, CA, where Diane graduated from Newport

Harbor High School in 1963.

She was a trained ballerina and was recruited out of high school to

join a touring song-and-dance group called the French Sisters. She

performed in Las Vegas, Honolulu, and many other venues across the

country for about a year before deciding to attend college.

She chose what was then called California State College at Long

Beach (now CSULB), where she studied speech pathology and was a

member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. There, she met James P. Webb,

and they married in Newport Beach, CA, in 1967. From 1972 to 1976, they

lived in Lubbock, Texas, where her husband completed his Ph.D. in

entomology at Texas Tech.

They later returned to Southern California and settled in Huntington

Beach, where she resided for the rest of her life. After she and Jim

separated, she entered the automotive industry, initially selling shock

absorbers. There, she met Robert (Bob) Estrada, and they married in Kauai,

Hawaii, in 1985.

Diane climbed the executive ladder in the automotive industry,

becoming one of the very few female executives in that field and

eventually rising to Senior Vice President of Marketing. Along the way,

her employers sponsored her to obtain management certificates from the

University of Southern California and Columbia University.

She was always proactive, driven, high-energy, and positive. When

she spoke, people listened. She was also an active member of her church

(the OC Spiritual Center) and the CHOC Follies, where she continued

dancing into her 70s. In addition, she served on the board of Tias Arms,

helping bring relief to the poor in South Africa.

She is survived by her husband, Robert; her two sons, Patrick (Dearsy)

and Jason (Gianna) Webb; and her six grandchildren, Jenna, Kayla,

Kailani, Arjuna, Logan, and Adinda Webb. She is also survived by her

sister, Suzanne St. John of Florida, and (presumably) by her brother,

Michael G. Herring, an illustrator known for his work on the Del Rey

Wizard of Oz book series and contributions to The Lord of the Rings, who

moved to southern Australia in 2003. She is further survived by three

stepchildren: Robert Coppel, Christine Estrada, and Brianne (Craig)

Cavanaugh.

She is sorely missed.