Diane Manwaring, leader in marketing

Diane Koenig Manwaring, 65, of Chestnut Hill, who rose from the typing pool at SmithKline to become a marketing executive and later a consultant, died Thursday, July 7, from glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, at home.

She had been diagnosed in 2013, but stayed active even after her eyesight failed, her family said.

Mrs. Manwaring was born in Camden, daughter of Anna J. Prickitt and Charles J. Koenig. She was reared in Northeast Philadelphia, graduating from St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls in 1969.

While working as a typist at SmithKline, now GlaxoSmithKline, Mrs. Manwaring put herself though night school, earning a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1978 from La Salle College, as the university was then known.

By the 1980s, she had joined SmithKline's Menley & James division, where she was a brand manager.

In the 1980s, she joined Rhône-Poulenc Rohrer Inc., an international chemical and pharmaceutical company. From 1990 to 1995, she was the firm's marketing director based in Philadelphia. During that time she won awards including the Addy from the Advertising Women of New York for best ad campaign of 1993.

In 1997, she moved to Medtech, a small health and beauty products company, as vice president of marketing. She left in 2003 to establish her own consulting firm, DKM Inc., which did planning, brand management, and acquisition evaluation for small and mid-sized consumer products companies.

She began consulting in the marketing department of Lansinoh Laboratories Inc. in 2004, and joined the global medical products firm as vice president of marketing at an office in Alexandria, Va.

In 2010, she was appointed president of Lansinoh North America. "In her new role she is responsible for all corporate marketing, sales, operations, and new product development in the United States and Canada," the firm said in announcing her promotion.

Two years later, she became a leader of the Emerson Group, a sales organization for over-the-counter products, and health and beauty aids. She started a consulting wing, which was designed to boost brand recognition and sales.

She married S. Edward Manwaring, a native of Hazleton, Pa., in 1986. The couple had one son.

In her leisure time, Mrs. Manwaring enjoyed the Jersey Shore, a good book, her cats, Tony's Pizza, and blasting things clean with her industrial-grade power washer.

"Cleaning the deck was a thrill. It was her Zen," said her son, Michael C.

Besides her son, she is survived by a brother, and seven nieces and three nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 16, at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martins Lane. Burial is private.

Donations may be made to the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine via www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/giving.

bcook@phillynews.com610-313-8102