Diane Carman Pace

Diane Carman Pace passed away on June 6, 2026, from causes incident to her age of 91, at her home in Provo, Utah, surrounded by her family. She was born on April 16, 1935, in Salt Lake City to Ralph Busby Carman and Karolla Barber. She was the oldest of five children.

At age eight, she moved with her family to Portland, Oregon, where she attended school in Milwaukee and Oak Grove, participating in drama, dance, and pageants that led to her being crowned Miss Oregon in 1954. In Atlantic City, she represented the state at the Miss America Pageant, the first year the competition was nationally televised.

Concurrently, at Brigham Young University, she met her future husband, George W. Pace (1929-2020) of Burley, Idaho. Over the course of 24 years, Diane and George had twelve children while living in Burley, Provo, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Palo Alto, California, largely employed by the LDS Church Educational System before returning to Utah, where George joined the faculty at BYU for the remainder of his career in the Department of Religion.

In Provo, Diane founded and directed the Small World Preschool for 20 years from her home on 1500 East. She served on the advisory board for the Department of Early Childhood Education at what is now Utah Valley University. She often spoke at BYU’s Education Week and accompanied her husband on Know Your Religion Series lectures, both locally and at various locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. She was also featured in “talk tapes” produced by Covenant Recordings with her husband, appeared in an anthology of inspirational Mormon women, and in other church-related periodicals and books.

With her husband, she spent an academic year at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, taught English for a year at Tongji University in Shanghai, PRC, with the BYU China Teachers Program, and served a two-and-one-half-year mission as facilitators of the China Teachers Program. They also served a Church Education Mission in Wellington, New Zealand, and taught senior missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center.

Though at one time a beauty queen, her crowning achievement was as a wife and mother. She loved her husband dearly, caring for him for many years as he declined in health before passing away. Next to her husband, her lifelong best friends were her ten devoted daughters who relied on her for counsel, support, and love as they began their own families and careers. Her two sons honored her as well in a similar fashion, but it was the “sisters ten” whose great affection and deference—even through differences of opinion and life choices, and the relentless elaboration of their own very large personalities—that animated Diane’s life.

In the end, and in a small way, it was her children who were given the privilege of giving back to their beloved mother by caring for her as an aging parent.

Diane is survived by her brother Dennis Carman (American Fork) and other Carman family members. Her children Deborah Roghaar (preceded in death by her husband, Bruce), Logan; Rachelle Castor (Doug), Vineyard; Karolla Pace, Bountiful; David (Cheryl), Salt Lake City; Brent (Ralph Martinez), Salt Lake; Shenole Palmer (Dan), Salem; Elizabeth Jensen (Dave), Danville, Ohio; Stephenie Petty (Scott), Salt Lake; Tamara Thomson (Kim), Provo; Rebecca Liechty (James), Lorton, Virginia; Kimberly Henderson (Duane) Lewisville, North Carolina; and Sarah Contreras, (Omel, former spouse of Sarah), Provo.

Additionally, she is survived by 52 grandchildren, several great-grandchildren, and, two days following her passing, her first great-great-grandchild.

Among Diane’s many qualities and talents were her strong sense of duty and follow-through and the resolute devotion she herself held for her husband, her children, and her God. An active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she shared with her husband a commitment to the Savior and His gospel, wholly underscored by His atonement. Together, they made every attempt to bring others to the knowledge of the Lord and His plan of happiness.

A friend to many, an example to all, Diane Carman Pace will be remembered and revered for her self-sacrifice and her commitment to understanding others while serving them in whatever way she could.

The family thanks her friends, her ward family and its leadership, the caregivers at Bristol Hospice Utah, and others, for their professional and loving care of our mother and grandmother.

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of Him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of Him: That He lives!”

An evening viewing for family and friends will be held on Friday, June 12, 2026, from 6-8 p.m. at the LDS Church located at 1960 North 1500 East, Provo. Funeral services will be Saturday, June 13, 2026, at 11:00 a.m., also at the Church, 1960 North 1500 East, Provo, with a viewing held that morning from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to the services. Interment will be in the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery, 4800 Northeast Lawn Drive, Provo, Utah.

Condolences for the family may be expressed on this page.

For those unable to attend the services in person, you may view the Livestream HERE