Diane Linkletter

Diane Linkletter (October 31, 1948 – October 4, 1969) was the daughter and youngest child of popular American media personality Art Linkletter, and his wife Lois Foerster. She was 20 years old when she committed suicide in 1969.

Spouse:

Grant Conroy (1965–1965)

Parents:

Art Linkletter (1912–2010)
Lois Foerster (1916–2011)

Relatives:

Jack Linkletter (brother)

Background

Not widely known to the public before she died, Diane Linkletter was the youngest of five children born to Art Linkletter, and his wife Lois Foerster. In 1965 at the age of 17, Linkletter married 19-year-old Grant Conroy. The marriage, which was later annulled, was not publicized, as both Linkletter and Conroy's families wanted to keep news of the marriage quiet.

Linkletter later pursued a career in acting. She performed in summer stock and, in 1968, appeared in a sketch on The Red Skelton Show. That same year, Linkletter traveled with her father to Europe to entertain families of servicemen.

Death

At 9 a.m., on October 4, 1969, Linkletter jumped out of a window of her sixth-floor apartment at the Shoreham Towers in West Hollywood, California. She was first taken to Hollywood Receiving Hospital, and then to Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center where she died of her injuries sustained in the fall. Her death was widely reported in the media at the time. Her father blamed her death on drug use, specifically LSD.

The day after her death, Art Linkletter held a press conference where he stated that Diane's death "wasn't a suicide. She was not herself. She was murdered by the people who manufacture and distribute LSD." He also stated that Diane had used LSD in the six months prior to her death and the two discussed a "bum trip" Diane had experienced. Although Linkletter hadn't spoken to Diane in the last 24 hours of her life, he believed that she had taken LSD the night before her death and had experienced another bad trip which caused her to leap to her death.

However, a toxicology test later determined that Diane Linkletter had no drugs in her system the day she died. An autopsy conducted by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office determined that Linkletter died from "multiple traumatic injuries".

A police investigation was launched to determine the events surrounding Linkletter's death. Police questioned Edward "Ed" Durston, a friend who was present in Linkletter's apartment the morning of her death. Durston told police that Linkletter had phoned him the night before her death and "was very upset" and asked him to come over. Durston went to Linkletter's apartment at around 3 a.m., and the two stayed up all night talking. He claimed that Linkletter's behavior was "extremely emotional, extremely despondent and very irrational at times, in fact most of the time." Durston said she was also upset over her career and complained that she "could not be her own person."

At 9 a.m. the following morning, Linkletter went into her kitchen. Durston told police that when Linkletter did not return, he went to find her. Before he could reach Linkletter, she approached the kitchen window and jumped out. Durston did not mention whether Linkletter had discussed taking any drugs the previous night. Based on Durston's account and the toxicology reports, police concluded that Linkletter's death was a suicide caused by her despondent mental state.

Aftermath

After Diane's death, Art Linkletter became a prominent anti-drug campaigner.

In 1970, Art and Diane Linkletter won the 1970 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for their record "We Love You, Call Collect". The record, which was released in November 1969 - just a few weeks after her death - sold 275,000 copies in eight weeks, peaking at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100. According to Art Linkletter, royalties from the sales went "to combat problems arising from drug abuse."

Diane Linkletter's friend Edward "Ed" Durston would later be linked to another high-profile and controversial death. In January 1985, Durston accompanied actress Carol Wayne on a trip to Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. After an argument, Wayne went for a walk on the beach and never returned. Her body was later found floating in Santiago Bay. Wayne's death was later ruled accidental. Durston was never an official suspect in either case.

In popular culture

• On October 5, 1969, the day after Diane Linkletter's death, filmmaker John Waters made a nine-minute film entitled The Diane Linkletter Story, a fictionalized version of the events surrounding Linkletter's death.
• In 1969, Bobby Darin wrote the song "Baby May" about Linkletter's suicide. Darin said he felt that Art Linkletter could have assumed more responsibility in his daughter's death. The song includes a lyric "Baby May had to pass away to hear her Daddy say, 'I was wrong.'"