Joan G. Sheehy

Joan G. Sheehy passed away peacefully at home in her sleep on April 2, 2024. She was 88 years old. Born Joan Ann Galligan on January 24, 1936, to Jerome D. and Anne Murphy Galligan in Chicago, IL, she became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at St. Mary’s in Notre Dame, IN. There she majored in art and history, graduating in 1958. It was there, too, she met a Notre Dame student named John Laurence Sheehy, Jr., also of Chicago at a freshman mixer. The two would marry on December 27, 1960, at Queen of All Saints Basilica and embark on a life together that lasted until his death in September of 2019.

After John’s active-duty assignment with the Navy in California, where their eldest daughter Catherine Ann was born, they settled back in Illinois, where Mary Colleen; John Laurence, III; Margaret Eileen; and William Anthony all followed. Finally in the summer of 1969 they moved to Walpole, Massachusetts, and welcomed the youngest of their brood, Brian Galligan. When they added a family collie that they named Shillelagh, Joan’s vision of domestic bliss was all but complete. The house reached capacity in 1975 when Jerry Galligan died, and Joan’s mom came to live with them, bringing the headcount for meals to 9 and making her a magician with a pound of ground beef.

Over the next six decades in Walpole, Joan made a rich life as an active member of her community, her parish, and her expansive circle of friends. When the kids were younger, she led pre-k classes for the red, blue, and yellow birds at Blessed Sacrament; later, she went back to teaching art and history at Norwood High School, Dedham High School, and finally Ursuline Academy, also in Dedham.

From girlhood she adored movies and was a member of the Chicago Tribune’s “Keen Teen Press” for whom she interviewed celebrities like Kathryn Grayson. She was particularly fond of Golden Age Hollywood films and musicals, but moviegoing was a constant pleasure throughout her life. She saw almost everything—no horror flicks and few westerns. When her beloved classic films moved to the late-night, small screen with Frank Avruch’s The Great Entertainment on a local Boston channel, she let us drag our sleeping bags to the foot of her bed, and we’d fall asleep to the dancing of Gene Kelly or the crooning of Frank Sinatra.

In addition to films, she loved painting, traveling, and watching sports, particularly football and basketball. She and John were New England Patriot season ticket holders when Foxboro Stadium opened and lifelong Notre Dame fanatics attending games back at their alma mater and around the country. Later, she enthusiastically took up tennis (and consequently mild swearing) and briefly tried her hand at bridge, where she excelled at table talk. Her favorite vacation spot was Walt Disney World. The family’s first trip was in the early 1970s, when Space Mountain was under construction. During the next trip, she rode the coaster and spent the next two days in a darkened hotel room.  But back she went over and over, including trips with her grandchildren…or even with no children at all.

She loved throwing parties for both kids and adults. Halloween allowed her to pair her gift for art with her enormous enthusiasm for holidays, with themed costumes from “Sheehy’s Full House” (where we all wore cardboard painted like playing cards) to Laugh-In characters where Colleen almost froze as the Sock-It-to-Me girl in a bikini, to a Saturday Night Live menagerie that saw Bill in a top-knotted wig, a red kimono, and carrying our dad’s ceremonial Knights of Columbus sword as John Beluchi’s Samurai character to Star Wars which saw Brian sporting a trashcan and a metal bowl on his head as R2D2. We were the talk of the block, which we did not always appreciate.

But Christmas was far and away her favorite holiday. More than that, it was a passion with her. And the true testament to her entertaining prowess was the annual neighborhood-wide party she threw, which included caroling, skating, then hot chocolate and popcorn balls for the kids and transitioned to Irish-coffee- and grog-fueled live music and grownup fun until the wee hours. As we kids lay awake upstairs hopped up on sugar, we could hear her loud inimitable laugh all night long.

She is survived by all her children and their spouses: Catherine (Katherine Roth), Colleen Simonelli (Joe), John (Kim D. Sherman), Meg (Myra Casis), Bill (Monet) and Brian (Kim), by her grandchildren Elizabeth Vanderventer, Michael Simonelli, Matthew Simonelli (Janel), Connor Sheehy, Maeve Sheehy, and Laurel Sheehy. She also leaves behind her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews from the Leonard, Sheehy, and Maguire families and their spouses and children, and because she had a talent for friendship, she will be missed by more folks than can be named here.

Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend Joan’s Life Celebration on Friday, April 19, 2024, from 4 to 7 pm in the James H. Delaney & Son Funeral Home, 48 Common Street, Walpole.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Saint Jude’s Church, 86 Main Street, Norfolk on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 10:00 am.  Interment will take place privately at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Joan’s name to the 52^nd Street Project, an arts and education outreach program in New York, where her son John is the Director of Institutional Advancement.

The 52^nd Street Project’s mailing address for donations is:
  Ahmed Attia 
 Director of Development
52^nd Street Project
789 10^th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

Their website is: 52project.org

Their direct link for donations is: https://52ndstproject.my.salesforce-sites.com/donate/?dfId=a0n4y00000KN5jQAAT