Josephine Jane Hearne, hardworking woman
Josephine Jane (Weer) Hearne completed her earthly mission and returned home Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, to the loving embrace of her heavenly father and mother. She was born Nov. 3, 1924. She is the last to leave her family, and is survived by her six children: Gary (Gloria), Tom (Mary Lou), Sharon (Wayne) Morris, Cindy (Stanley Jr.) Sakowski, Douglas (Sabrina) and Jeffery (Susan).
Jo grew up outside Old New Castle on Old Churchman’s Road across from the Greater Wilmington Airport. She graduated from William Penn High School and married Rodney Lee Hearne, raising six children, 28 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren.
After marrying Rod, they lived in an apartment on Old Churchman’s Road until moving into a home her father built on the farm. Jo and Rod finished their own home on three acres of wooded land. Jo always worked side-by-side with Rod during all of the construction and land clearing. They began clearing 168 trees of standing hardwood forest the old-fashioned way by axe and crosscut saw. They also shoveled a lot of dirt by hand into two old pickup trucks and chopped a lot of wood. The family moved in in November 1960 without a heater in the house; they only had heat from the downstairs fireplace. The home was not completed in many areas. To make ends meet, Jo started demonstrating toys for C&B Toy Club Co. and was busy from June through December every year. She hired other similar sales associates that she trained and prospered, which earned her and her team many trips and cruises along with her goal of providing her now six children many wonderful Christmases to remember.
Jo and Rod took their children to many horse shows, camping trips, and air shows when they weren’t busy working, farming and volunteering for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where they attended as regularly as possible. The Hearnes were part of building the first LDS Ward Building in Wilmington, not only in helping to raise money for the building but also physically building the structure.
The Weers were one of the few fortunate families to have a small cottage at the Indian River Yacht Basin, affording the family weekends and summer vacations enjoying the beach, swimming, boating, fishing, clamming, crabbing, and mostly enjoying being all together as a large family, reveling in big family dinners. Grandfather Weer and family completed their final home in Rehoboth Beach just in time to keep the growing family gatherings going until all of the aunts and uncles had their own dwellings in the area.
Jo moved to Rehoboth Beach after Rod passed and lived her last years with her daughter, Cindy Jo.
We’re missing a real special lady. Jo was a bowling pro, a lover of babies and family, the best cook and baker in the world, a great taxi driver, a card shark (hand & foot) or Rummikub, and a quick-witted, hardworking, wise, adorable, loving, spunky old gal whom everyone loved to be around. Can’t wait until the day that I get another one of her sweet cheek kisses. Love you forever.
Funeral Services will be held Monday, Sept. 26, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 500 W. Chestnut Hill Road, Newark. Family may call from 10:30 to 11 a.m. for family viewing and prayer, and friends may call from 11 a.m. to noon. A funeral service will be from noon to 1 p.m., followed by a grave dedication at 2 p.m. at Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 2465 Chesapeake City Road, Bear. A luncheon will be held from 2:30 to 4 p.m., at the church.
Full obituary can be viewed and online condolences may be offered to the family at rtfoard.com.
