Jane Heekin, 84
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Jane Heekin, 84, of 41 Oblong Road died peacefully on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2011, surrounded by her family.
Born in South Orange, N.J., on Jan. 24, 1927, daughter of James M. and Margaret S. Jessup, she graduated from Columbia High School and Bradford College, after which she attended nursing school in New York City. She resided in Cincinnati, then in South Orange and Summit, N.J., where she raised her family, moving to Williamstown in the late 1970s.
Mrs. Heekin was founder and co-owner of Library Antiques in Williamstown.
She pursued her early interest in medicine through her many volunteer activities, including starting the Candy Stripe Program at Orange Memorial Hospital and working in the burn unit at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She was a board member of the American Cancer Society and a 35-year survivor of breast cancer. Locally, she volunteered for Reach for Recovery and Road for Recovery, programs for breast cancer patients.
She and her late husband, Jim, loved the Berkshires and spent many happy days watching the seasons pass and tending their fields and gardens. They also enjoyed escaping to their home on Mustique in the West Indies, where they had many good friends. The summer days that she spent since childhood at her family cottage in Elk Lake, Pa., were a source of lifelong memories and joy.
A beautiful woman inside and out, said her family, she had a sense of style and a love of life that impressed everyone who knew her and remained undiminished despite her long and courageous struggle with Parkinson's disease. Her mission in life was to take care of her family, which she did with a heart full of love and infinite patience, every day of her life. Her loving, radiant presence will be sorely missed.
Her husband, James Robson Heekin of Cincinnati, whom she married in 1948, died in 2009.
She leaves two sons, James Heekin of Stamford, Conn., and Timothy Heekin of Manchester, Vt.; two daughters, Margaret Kensinger of State College, Pa., and Elizabeth Bartels of Williamstown; her in-laws, who were like children to her; eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and many dear friends and relations.
A grandson, Mathias Jessup Bartels, predeceased her.
FUNERAL NOTICE — A memorial service for Mrs. Heekin will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church, Park Street, on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 1 p.m. A reception will follow at the Williams Inn; parking also available at the Williams College parking garage behind the theater.
Burial will be private and there will be no calling hours.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be sent to St. Jude Children's Hospital, PO Box 1818 Memphis, TN 38101-9903 or The Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, 671 Cold Spring Road, Williamstown, MA 01267 or in care of Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, Central Chapels, 74 Marshall St., North Adams, MA 01247.