Diane often had the opportunity to share the screen with Laura, as she began appearing in some of her mother’s films when Laura was a child. More recently, the mother-daughter duo returned to the spotlight when Diane played Laura’s mother on the Mike White-produced TV show Enlightened from 2011 to 2013.
However, in recent years Diane’s health had deteriorated. In 2018, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The lung disease developed after he was unknowingly exposed to pesticides sprayed in his neighborhood. When she and her daughter were given three to six months to live, they decided to work together again to preserve their memories and co-authored a book titled “Honey Baby Mine.”
“We told each other everything,” Laura told Today in 2023. “She said that she truly felt that it was actually very healing, both physically and emotionally, to finally be free from the sadness, challenges, and heartbreak of life, and to laugh at the absurd fights and silly things we had been through.”
And for Laura, 58, it was an opportunity to see her mother in a different light.
“I was shocked that I barely asked her anything,” Laura said. “Even simple things. I was raised to be an actor and worked with my mom, but I’ve never had anyone ask me, ‘Why did you decide to come from this small town in Mississippi to become an actress?'”
