Name/Nicknames: Diane Hampton, sometimes called Dee
Gender: Female
Rank/Position: Former university professor (gender studies) and rancher, currently substitute teacher and overall active community member
Age: 71
Birthplace: First Centauri

Physical Description: Diane is in fairly good shape for her age, although the primitive medical technology on Pern is beginning to catch up with her. Her once medium brown hair has gone completely grey and she wears it short, neatly tucked behind her ears. A generous amount of wrinkles cover a round face that looks like it should belong to a sweet old grandma. She has grey eyes and thin eyebrows. Diane still wears makeup, despite its decreasing supplies, and has her hair fixed regularly. She's still fairly tall, 5'11", and has gained twenty extra pounds on her once lean frame in recent years.

Personality: Of those who care enough to have an opinion of Diane, people are divided on how they view her. Some see her as a wise woman who has more than a few good ideas upstairs supplemented by her age and experience. Others can't stand her and wish she'd shut the hell up. Diane and her friends see her as an out-going, sensible, and young for her age. Others just think she's a troublemaker who sticks her nose where she doesn't belong and acts like she has more authority than she really does. Diane, herself, is quick to form opinions and never wavers, unless she's forgotten her previous opinions (her memory isn't what it used to be, with the stress of losing her ranch to Thread). She's got a lot of self confidence and a high opinion of herself, and her biggest hobby is her involvement in local politics. She signs up for every committee and is always the first to offer her opinion on public issues (and does she have lots of opinions!).

Background: Diane's parents were fairly well off, her mother a news producer as a local VR network who met and soon married her father, an ambitions young student intern. Both went on to be successful and enjoyed fairly independent lives from one another despite their marriage and continued to do so after Diane was born, who they called their happy little accident. Neither parent had much time for their daughter, so Diane was raised by hired nannies. When they were around, Diane's parents (who divorced when she was in grade school) were at a loss with the little girl, unsure how to relate to a child more interested in ponies (unfortunately there wasn't room for farm animals in the crowded city she grew up in) and pink dresses than business or current events. Diane was fascinated with fairy-tales of damsels in distress and secretly waited for her real parents, who were really a king and queen deeply in love, to come rescue her from her villainous nannies.

Diane grew up and attended a local university and majored in majored in Post-Colonial Terran Literature. She was a serious student who made almost perfect grades. She was involved in school politics but was too dedicated to her studies for many other hobbies, although she did participate in an exchange program that allowed her to spend a semester on the Cancri home-world. Eventually she transferred to the prestigious First University and earned her PhD in Gender Studies after a riveted thesis comparing gender archetypes in alien and human mythology. Diane went on to teach at a smaller university and published a few books that received mixed reviews, including the Sacredness of Feminine Virginity and Reviving the Honor of the Homemaker. When Diane was in her mid-thirties, she met the man she'd been waiting for, a handsome 50-something war hero by the name of Lyle Bloom. Diane quit teaching, although she continued to write, to have children and proudly bore Lyle two sons and a daughter. Diane became estranged from her parents (whom she had never gotten along with) after they refused to support her decision to give up her career to have children. Other than that, Diane couldn't be happier. She was a wife and mother of three wonderful children and always an active volunteer at the private academies they attended.

Diane's picture perfect marriage ended when Lyle left her for his young and beautiful mistress. Diane, who had never been with another man, knew Lyle saw other women, but had always kept her chin up and reminded herself she was the one married to him, not them. When her husband left, Diane responded by keeping a tighter leash on her children as she molded them into ideal adults. As her kids grew up, Diane's daughter became the black sheep of the family when she underwent surgical sterilization and ran off to get a job as a Trader Ship that Diane highly suspected was involved in smuggling. Fortunately, her two boys turned out to be fine young men, and her youngest, Tad, even elected to join her on the Pern expedition. She decided to come to Pern so she could finally live out her childhood dream of raising horses.

On Pern, Diane and Tad happily ran their own little ranch for eight years. They'd missed the first Threadfall by the ranch's fortunate location, but Diane refused to believe rumors of the severity of the newfound menace and did not make proper preparations to protect her land and lost her home and many of her animals. Tad and Diane fled back to Landing and eventually moved to New Landing along with the rest of the settlement. Diane found the move difficult, but found herself busy with substitute teaching. She regularly reminds Tad it is about time she became a grandma on this world, but is tiding herself over in the mean time with her foster children. They are Caprica, a Thread orphan, and Anaru, a boy whose father left him for the north. She currently holds a seat on the candidacy selection board.

Family/Friends:
Tad Hampton, 30-something, New Landing
Caprica Shoko-Qualin, 14, student, New Landing
Anaru Hamza, 11, student, New Landing

Hobbies & Skills: Community politics, committees, candidacy board, reading, journaling, social drinking

Pets: Diane's pets were killed when the pass began, save her fire-lizards: Spring and Autumn, her green and brown she bonded with in year two. She'll occasionally sneak and foster orphaned kittens or puppies, but doesn't have room for adult animals in her cave apartment.