Joan Marie Hackney
Joan Marie ( née Healy) Hackney died peacefully at home in West Chester, PA on Apr. 27, 2020 after a brief struggle with Covid- 19. Joan was born to George Edward and Josephine Marie ( née Dillon) Healy on Dec. 1, 1928 in Bridgeport, CT.
While attending Bridgeport’s Central High School, she assembled radios at General Electric during WWII making her one of the many Rosie the Riveters of the time. After graduation she attended the Whitney School of Art in New Haven from 19471951 to earn her teaching certificate. Thereafter she taught art classes in the Bridgeport area. She was also a freelance fashion illustrator, and an illustrator at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, CT. During 1954 she enrolled in New Haven State Teacher’s College ( now Southern Connecticut State University) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree during 1957 while pregnant with her first child.
She met John Charles Hackney, Sr., her beloved husband of fifty- nine years, while he was performing in the University of Pennsylvania Mask & Wig musical comedy club, and they married during 1956. Joan was a devoted supporter of her husband’s long career at GE that included relocations to Valley Forge, PA, Pittsfield, MA, and Syracuse, NY. During these years Joan was a thoughtful, caring mother who ensured her children received excellent educations, developed their athletic, musical and literary interests and were instilled with solid values rooted in her Roman Catholic faith. Always devout, Joan taught Sunday School ( i. e., CCD to Catholics) at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Pittsfield and was a member of several parish prayer groups. Her children cannot recall her ever voluntarily missing weekly Mass.
While living in the Main Line area of metro Philadelphia, Joan was an early and active member of Paoli Ladies Auxiliary that was instrumental in the founding of Paoli Hospital in Paoli, PA. Joan and John also became charter members of the Waynesborough Country Club at its opening during 1965 and were active for decades with many lifelong friends. In later years, she enjoyed being Mimi to her four grandchildren.
In addition to her talent as an illustrator, Joan was accomplished in portrait oil and landscape watercolor painting. Her watercolors of scenes from the Bridgeport and Long Island sound areas adorned the family walls throughout her life. In keeping with her love of art history, Joan was a volunteer docent at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY for many years.
Joan is survived by her beloved children, Allan and Jane ( née Burdette) Hackney of New Canaan, CT, John ( Jack) Hackney, Jr. and his children Jillian, Oliver, and Rose Hackney of King of Prussia, PA, Anne ( Andillon) Hackney, Robert Pastrana, and their daughter Olivia Pastrana of Oceanside, CA, her nephew Leo Redgate, Jr. and his wife Una of Fairfield, CT, her nieces Phyllis Finn and her husband Daniel of Hobe Sound, FL and Ellen Maleri and her husband Ronald of Trumbull, CT, and many great- nephews, great- nieces and cousins. She was predeceased by her sister Phyllis Redgate.
The family acknowledges and thanks the nurses and aides of Bellingham Senior Living of West Chester, PA who provided wonderful care for Joan for three years, especially during her final days amid the pandemic.
Interment will be at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Stratford, CT. A future Mass and celebration of Joan’s life will be planned. To share a memory or offer online condolences to the family, please visit redgatehennessy. com. Donations in her name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association to continue the search for a cure.