I thought I would have to also put one on the leg of the backup battery supply so that when Vcc is active, that diode protects the backup battery from the Vcc voltage.
I might be doing it wrong, but with VCC being 3 volts I have not had any problems.

evidently it will keep on trucking when Vcc is shut down. Correct??
Correct, I had a part that got pushed to the back of the bench for around six months (no external power) and the RTC was still alive when I fired it up.

can you take a look at my EMAIL routine
Yes, I am looking at it.