Dianne Odell died this morning in her Tennessee home. Dianne had been confined to an iron lung for nearly 60 years. She was diagnosed with polio before the polio vaccine was invented.

Odell lived in an iron lung because she had a severe case of polio - bulbar polio - which had left her paralyzed and unable to breathe on her own.

Odell wrote a book, “Blinky Less Light,” about the smallest star in heaven. The children’s book, which took Odell 10 years to finish, has almost sold out of the 100,000 copies printed. She took courses at the University of Tennessee before attending Freed-Hardeman University, where she studied psychology.

Odell had been visited by many celebrities throughout the years, including actor David Keith, former Dallas Cowboy Cliff Harris, and Jane Seymour, known for her role as “Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

Odell even helped encourage and pick up the spirits of the late Christopher Reeve after he was left paralyzed after a horsing accident.

In an interview last year, Odell said that she once talked to the Seymour’s late best friend, Christopher Reeve, who was famous for portraying Superman in four movies. She said that in that telephone conversation, Reeve, who had recently been paralyzed after being thrown from a horse, asked her how she kept her spirits up.

I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with Dianne at her home about three years ago. I had just appeared in Cosmo and my friend Jacque Hillman took me over to visit and spend some time with her. She was an amazing woman just as were both of her parents, Freeman and Geneva. Her elderly parents took care of her every day of her life. I was the one that came away being impressed by the Odell family and blessed from spending a day with Dianne.

An iron lung is like a big iron coffin where you are on your back all the time. Dianne had a mirror above her head where she could see who was talking to her. I know that Jacque (who was very close to Dianne), myself and thousands others that were inspired by Dianne are very saddened with her passing.

Photos of Dianne Over the Years

Dianne not Diane