Diane Disney Miller – Walt and Lillian Disney’s oldest daughter

Lillian Disney gave birth to Diane Marie Disney on December 18, 1933.  Three years later Diane became a big sister, when Walt and Lillian adopted Sharon Mae Disney on December 31, 1936.¹ 

Both Diane and Sharon grew up in Los Angeles, not far from the studios where Walt worked. They went on regular Daddy Daughter dates to Griffith Park where Walt dreamed of the idea of a place for parents and children to enjoy together, later known as Disneyland.

After high school Diane went to University Southern California, USC, to major in English.  While attending USC, Diane, 20 at the time, was set up on a blind date.  On the blind date she met Ron Miller, a 21-year old USC football player.  After dating for a few months, they were married on May 9, 1954 in Santa Barbara.²

At the end of 1954, Diane gave birth to their first son, Christopher. Over the next twelve years Ron and Diane had six more children, Joanna (b. 1956), Tamara (b. 1958), Jennifer (later Miller-Goff; b. 1960), Walter (b. 1962), Ronald (b. 1964), and Patrick (b. 1966).³

With the help of Pete Martin, Diane “published a series of eight pieces for the Saturday Evening Post in 1956, titled “My Dad, Walt Disney”.⁴  They went on to write a biography of her father, The Story of Walt Disney, published in 1957.⁵

During this time Ron was in the Army and played for the Los Angeles Rams, before finally joining the Walt Disney Company.⁶  In the late 1970’s Ron and Diane purchased property in Napa valley, and created the Silverado Vineyard Winery, where they made it a home and lived out the rest of their life together.⁷

Until Diane’s death in 2013, she was a big supporter of the arts, and had a major hand in getting the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Walt Disney Family Museum opened.⁸  After many delays and red-tape the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003. Diane went on to be co-founder of the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco which opened in 2009.⁹

1. https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Sharon_Disney_Lund ↩︎
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Disney_Miller ↩︎
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Disney_Miller ↩︎
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Disney_Miller ↩︎
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Disney_Miller ↩︎
6. https://www.waltdisney.org/about/board-of-directors/ron-miller ↩︎
7. https://www.waltdisney.org/about/board-of-directors/ron-miller ↩︎
8. https://www.waltdisney.org/about/diane-disney-miller ↩︎
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Disney_Miller ↩︎