Josephine Hearne: Rehoboth roots go way back

Josephine Hearne's Delaware roots run deep, even deeper than the roots of dozens of Christmas trees she and her late husband planted in New Castle County and Rehoboth Beach.

The Delaware native celebrated her 90th birthday Nov. 3 and said she couldn't imagine living her life anywhere other than the First State.

“Like my birthday cake said, my roots grow deep,” she said with a smile.

On a sunny November afternoon, Jo sits tucked away in her one-story home in Breakwater Estates in Rehoboth, in the family room where she keeps warm with a space heater while reading or knitting. It's an unusually warm day, so her windows are open, and Josephine shares stories about her travels and about returning home.

“I like to visit different places, but it's always nice to come back home. I'm addicted to the ocean,” she said.

Jo, who was born at her parents' farmhouse on Old Churchman's Road in New Castle County, has been visiting Delaware's beaches since she was a small child. One of five children, she and her family would pack up and head south to Rehoboth Beach or Indian River Inlet on Sundays and for a week each summer. The Hearnes would spend time fishing or playing in the surf and sand in the modest, one-piece bathing suits of the day. In the woods – now Henlopen Acres – they'd enjoy a picnic lunch of fried chicken before scurrying off to change behind a tree.

“We're just Rehoboth people from way back,” Jo said. “We've been beach people for many years. It's been bred in us since we were little kids.”

When Jo started her own family, she continued the tradition. Now, she has six children of her own – two girls and four boys – along with 27 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

“I can't picture my life without my children around me,” she said. “Family is forever.”

In her home in the quiet Rehoboth neighborhood, Jo has a drawer full of birthday cards. At the beginning of each month, she finds her handmade birthday wheel, which documents everyone's birthday, and sits down to write sweet sentiments to the many young, and some older, Hearnes.

Before moving to Rehoboth Beach full time in 1990, Jo lived near Hockessin, where every winter she and her late husband, Rodney Lee, would plant one of the live Christmas trees they had decorated for the holidays. Eventually, they started running out of room in their yard up north, so they started taking the little, live trees to their vacation home in Rehoboth.

“We had Christmas trees all over the yard,” she said.

Last year, tired of mowing around a massive 35-foot Christmas tree in the front yard of her Rehoboth home, Jo donated it to the City of Rehoboth Beach for the annual tree-lighting ceremony. She said she might have another one for them next year, if they think the oversized, fluffy tree out back will work on the Avenue.

“But they can't have my blue spruces,” she said with a sweet giggle.

For Jo, the tree-lighting ceremony was a highlight of being part of the Delaware beach community. Her children and grandchildren came down to the beach to celebrate, and she said it looked even bigger on the Avenue than it did from her front lawn.

“I was really glad I did that. It was quite an occasion,” she said.

Before the Rehoboth home became Jo's full-time residence, it was a hub for summer vacations at the shore and was the perfect place to perfect her candy-making skills, which she picked up through a church project more than 40 years ago.

The smell of chocolate, mint, cherry, coconut, maple walnut and buttercream candies would fill the vacation home as she and a friend from church labored, making fondant and chocolate candies for fundraisers.

“I had candy every place,” she said.

Jo continued making candy until recently. She said she might have one more surprise batch left in store.

“It was hard work, but I did it because the kids loved it so much,” she said. “I keep telling them I'm done.”

She keeps saying that, but daughters Cindy and Sharon are suspicious there might be just a few more chocolate Easter eggs coming their way.

As a young mother with six children to keep her busy, Jo still found time to work to make sure there were plenty of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. She tried her hand at demonstrating and selling toys for C&B toys while her husband was in the Navy Reserves, turning the home-based business into a 20-year career. After that, she worked in a gift shop in Wilmington for another 15 years, making candy on the side.

Throughout the years, Jo's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have spread across the country. Some relatives remain in Delaware – Jo will still hop in the car for a quick drive up to New Castle County for a visit – while others have spread to California, Arizona, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Maryland. But the distance doesn't stop Jo from being close to her family.

On Nov. 18, the great-grandmother will embark on a train journey with her daughter down to Alabama, then to Nashville, to visit family and squeeze in some sight-seeing.

“They say traveling keeps you young,” she said. “I've been blessed with good health.”

Jo and her late husband loved to travel, and her children still talk about their journey across the country from Florida, taking a southern route through Arizona and Utah, then back north through Wyoming.

“I've had a good life,” Jo said. But after her upcoming train ride, she plans to rest for the remainder of the winter.

Jo loves to travel, but at the end of the day, she said, there's nothing better than snuggling up with a good mystery novel, surrounded by the quiet solace of the Christmas trees in her Rehoboth yard.

“There's been ups and downs and all that goes with living, but it all works out in the wash,” she said. “Here, I'm just at peace.”