Sheila Hearne

Florida Mortuary Funeral & Cremation Services - St. Petersburg

Altogether<br/>4307 Vineland Road, Suite H-17-19, Orlando, FL 32811<br/>For more information, visit our website at <a href='www.altogetherfuneral.com'>www.altogetherfuneral.com</a><br/>Copyright © 2025 FPG Intermediate Holdco, LLC

Sheila Marie Hearne

Daughter, Wife, Mother, Nana, Friend

Veteran, Entrepreneur, Professor,

Child of God.

She was good. Her life was full.

 

Sheila Marie Hearne, age 59, of McLean, VA passed away in her sleep on Sunday, April 30, 2023, in St. Petersburg, FL where she was a Visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of South Florida. Born October 6, 1963, she was the daughter of Wilma J. Mitchell of Chambersburg, PA. The stepsister of Brian (Penny) Mitchell, Lori (Dennis) Odom, Kevin (Marie) Mitchell, and Matthew Mitchell. She was preceded in death by her stepfather William Mitchell, her father Theodore A. Sheets and her brother Christopher A. Sheets. Sheila was the loving wife of Gregory Hearne for 39 years and mother to their five children: John (Esther) Mills-Hearne, Meggan (Stephen) Edwards, Joshua (Laura) Hearne, Mercedes Ferraro, Mikayla Hearne and nine grandchildren, with the tenth expected in October.

Sheila graduated from McConnellsburg High School in 1981 and entered the U.S . Air Force shortly afterward. She completed training as an Intelligence Analyst in Texas. Her first duty assignment was at Clark Air Base on Luzon Island in the Philippines. While on this assignment she became the first fully flight-qualified female in the Electronic Security Command to fly missions aboard MC-130 aircraft in Southeast Asia. It was in the Philippines where she met herfuture husband, who was also in the U.S . Air Force stationed in Osan, Korea. In 1983, she was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. They were married in 1984 and later that year, she transferred to the Air Force Reserve and they moved to just outside Washington DC in Fort Washington, Maryland, where they lived on the Potomac River in a houseboat until they started having children.

Sheila worked for the Naval Air Systems Command until 1987 when she founded her first company Computeristics, Inc., which provided systems training and software development services to commercial clients. During this time, she also worked on completing her Bachelor of Science degreein Business Administration at the University of Maryland.

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall was coming down, Sheila and her husband decided they wanted to live in Germany during this historic period. In December of that year, they moved to Stuttgart, Germany where Sheila worked for the Defense Information Systems Agency at Patch Barracks. They had three children at that point ranging from three months to four years old. One of her favorite exploration trips during that period was a bus tour she took with some friends to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, just after the borders opened for travel. She spent days exploringthe Cathedrals and religious sites in the city. It was a pastime that remained with her for her entirelife. Years later she returned to explore the restoration done to many of those magnificent places.

The family stayed in Germany until 1992 when they moved to Cambridgeshire, England where Sheila took a position in the Education Office at RAF Alconbury. This job gave her the freedom to complete a Master of Public Administration degree with Troy University. During their time in Germany and England, Sheila and her family traveled extensively across Europe. One of her favorite pastimes became visiting Cathedrals in all the major cities. At the end of 1994, they returned to the U.S . and moved to McLean, VA.

In 1995, Sheila and her husband founded The OakHill Group which provided specialized engineering services to various government agencies. At the same time, Sheila was accepted into a doctoral program at George Mason University. While studying she was still the Chief Financial Officer for The OakHill Group, was a Girl Scout leader and a member of the school Board at St John Academy Catholic school in McLean where her children attended.

In 1999, Sheila had her youngest child and at the same time started proceedings to adopt her godson who lived in England at the time. Over the next several years, she raised their children, oversaw the business operations at The OakHill Group and completed her Doctorate in Public Policy. Following its completion, she became an Adjunct Professor at George Mason and then later took a position at Marymount University. In 2007, Sheila and her husband sold The Oakhill Group. This afforded Sheila the opportunity to focus on her passion for academic pursuits and international travel. She could possibly hold a record for the number of Cathedrals she visited. In 2010, she took an adjunct position at Gettysburg College where she remained for seven years.

In 2012, Sheila and her husband started a non-profit Foundation called A Connected Planet. Sheila was the Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Board. The Foundation’s mission is to provide policy planning and technical assistance to enable information sharing, education, and medical services in developing countries. For several years, their focus area was the Republic of Haiti where the Foundation maintained an apartment/office until COVID-19 and internal violence precluded travel. Sheila loved spending time in Port-au-Prince and the city of Hinche, where the Foundation worked with Catholic schools implementing digital education programs. She continued supporting work in Haiti remotely, most recently directing a digital education policy study for the World Bank.

In 2020, Sheila and her husband began spending part of the year in St. Petersburg, FL. She continued running the Foundation and this year accepted a Visiting Professor position at the University of South Florida (USF). She thoroughly enjoyed working at USF and her office was on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg. She loved being in the classroom andrecently accepted a position to return full-time in the fall. One of her favorite classes to teach was Introduction to the US Government to incoming freshmen. She prided herself on the fact no one could ever determine her political or religious affiliations.

Sheila also enjoyed boating. In 2022, she received her certification from the U.S. Sailing Association to charter sailing catamarans. Sheila and her husband were in the process of purchasing a Performance Cruising sailing catamaran which they planned to cruise in the Florida Keys and the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Some of her fondest memories were of cruising with her family in the BVI.

Through all the years Sheila’s truest passion was her children and grandchildren. The family maintained a part-time residence in Chambersburg, PA where Sheila stayed every summer with the children and any of their friends who wanted to visit. This tradition continued with hergrandchildren. One of the last things Sheila was doing before her untimely passing was preparing for her return to Chambersburg the second week of May, where she could host her children and grandchildren throughout the summer. Although, she did have a trip planned to Italy, Croatia and Germany with her husband and mother to visit friends and explore cities with Cathedrals she had not yet seen.

While we are heartbroken, we know her selfless acts and love of God have granted her a life of eternal peace. A memorial mass for Sheila is scheduled for Friday, May 12, 2023 at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Chambersburg, PA at 1:00 PM. She will be interned in Arlington National Cemetery, VA sometime next year. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to her favorite charity, Catholic Relief Services@www.crs.org in her Memory

When words can't fully express what we want to say, sometimes a small gift can. Visit our Memorial Store for personalized gifts, keepsake jewelry and to plant a memorial tree.

We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and analyze site traffic.
<privacyLink>Privacy Policy</privacyLink>.

<firstParagraph>We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience.</secondParagraph>

<firstParagraph>We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>The cookies that are categorized as 'Necessary' are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.</secondParagraph>

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

Analytics

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

Functional

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

Necessary

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Performance

Customize Cookie Preferences

Verification Successful!

New Message

The following files could not be uploaded

Ways you can honor {memorialName}'s memory:

Donation Link

Upcoming Event

Featured Mementos

Welcome Message

Select an item to highlight

Add a highlighted item

Customize which items you’d like to highlight on the memorial

Create Account

Become a Keeper

As a free {brandName} user, you will only be able to make 5 photos and videos public.

As a free {brandName} user, only the first five (5) Mementos are visible to page visitors. You can change which Mementos are public by dragging and dropping a photo or video to one of the first five positions. Upgrading to {brandName} Plus will make all 10 Mementos selected visible to the public.

All Mementos

This option is only available to Keeper Plus users.

To allow yourself and the rest of the community to view all images and videos, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of these mementos, upgrade your account to Keeper Plus.

This memento is not visible to visitors

Your community has posted {itemCount} more pictures and videos that honor {firstName}'s memory. To view them all, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of each, this account will need to upgrade to Keeper Plus.

View all images and videos with Keeper Plus

Our Obituary Assistant helps you craft a meaningful life story in minutes. Review and edit every detail, and unlock more features with Keeper Plus.

Obituary Assistant

Spend as much time as you need working on your Memorial page before it is visible to the public, and much more, when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Save Page as Draft

Create unlimited event pages and unlock a suite of powerful features to help you seamlessly coordinate event details, invites, and more when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Event

Create a full picture of your loved one’s community and add unlimited family and friends to Loved Ones when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Loved One

Create unlimited Memorials — and unlock unlimited images and videos, event pages, and advanced privacy settings — to help you keep memories alive when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Memorial Page

Add unlimited Stories to highlight the all the things that made your loved one unique, from milestones, images, albums, documents, locations, and much more.

Highlight Stories

Upgrading to Keeper Plus means you can add additional Keepers to help you gather Mementos and tributes, approve content, build out a family tree, and tell {firstName}' story on Keeper.

Invite Keepers with Keeper Plus

Upload and display unlimited photos and videos, use unlimited Story templates to highlight key moments, and allow friends and family to download their own copies when you upgrade to Keeper Plus. 

Better Mementos with Keeper Plus

To access memorial related configurations that control the display of the banner upgrade to Keeper Plus.

This configuration  is not available on your current plan

Create a meaningful link path to add a personal touch to {firstName}'s memorial.

Custom Memorial link

Gift Messages

SENDING AS A GIFT?

Cart

About 1-800 Flowers

"Flowers were beautiful and they arrived in time before the funeral. Thank you and will purchase more in the future.!"

Hearing Tears

"Beautiful flowers, I've always enjoyed sending them to my love ones for sympathy and they have always love them very much Thanks for making people feel good when receiving them."

Sympathy

"This was true to the photo and good to know family took arrangement after the service."

Beautiful arrangement.  Perfect size for service.

Some of the great things our customers say about us

We're here to make it a little easier, with thoughtful gifts for the services & home, along with expert advice on how to be there during a difficult time.

Flowers

Gift Baskets

Express Your Deepest Sympathy

About Us

Perfect Condolence Gift

No one is meant to grieve alone

Peace and love

Product is made, packaged, and sent with love

Keepsakes

How to add your gift message

Packaging Information

Shipping information

Add a Personalized Charm to the Ornament:

Other Keepsakes

Install KeeperQR onto any headstone, urn, or other memorial in minutes.

Install

Use your phone or tablet to scan the unique code — no other tools required!

Scan

All three of our elegant KeeperQR designs are printed using durable, weather-resistant aluminum designed for indoors and outdoor use on headstones and urns, memorial benches and trees, or other monuments to your loved one’s life

Built to Last

Get <discount>50% off</discount> Keeper Plus with your KeeperQR purchase

Keeper Basic

Learn About Our Plans

Connect the physical and digital worlds to share your loved one’s life story with friends and family, no matter where they are.

KeeperQR Memorial QR Code Plaques

Planting a memorial tree or bereavement tree is a unique, environmentally conscious way to pay tribute and honor the memory of your loved one. Keeper Memorials is supporting American Forests to plant whitebark pine trees as well as thornscrub trees in select regions of the US and Canada.

Memorial Trees

KeeperQR is designed to pair seamlessly with a Keeper digital memorial. Use our FREE intuitive tools to create biographies, maps, and timelines, share photos and videos, and more with customizable features built to commemorate your loved one’s life’s story.

Powered by Keeper

Lifetime without any hidden costs or subscription traps

One time payment

Keeper is SOC2 compliant, keeping your memories safe and secure.

Data protection guaranteed

We bring your QR Codes to any corner of the globe

Worldwide Shipping

Our durable and beautiful QR code plaques create seamless connection between your loved one’s physical memorial and their digital memorial, allowing visitors to their final resting place instant access to their life legacy.

Memorial.

Honor their memory, share their story

A KeeperQR is a weather-resistant plaque with a custom QR code that links directly to your loved one’s digital memorial. When placed on a headstone, urn, bench, or tree, it allows friends and family to scan and view their life story instantly

What is a KeeperQR?

They’re built to withstand outdoor elements and adhere to most surfaces.

Where can I place the KeeperQR?

How does it work?

Frequently asked questions

KeeperQR

E-Certificate Design

Plant Memorial Trees as a Living Tribute

BRAZIL

CANADA

FLORIDA

OREGON

Memorial Project Reach

Memorial trees start at {price} per tree, with discounts for multiple trees

Our Commitment

Gift Baskets & Food

Keeper Plus

QR Plaques

Keepers Featured Products

A Greener Way to Remember

Learn about our Partners:

Help Us Complete Your Order

Remembrance Store

Through your unique link, your client can sign up for Keeper and create a Memorial for a loved one. When the Memorial page is completed by the family, it will appear on your microsite and website. You will be the main Keeper Administrator of the Memorial, along with the family member that created the page.

Invite Your Clients to Create a Memorial

Invite Families

Your Email Notifications

Notifications

Email Unsubscribe Settings

Other Settings

With your active Keeper PLUS subscription, you get unlimited access to a suite of powerful features:

Allow visitors to download a local copy of all images and videos.

Download Media

Create a custom and meaningful URL, unique to your loved one, for each Memorial page.

Editable URL

Plan public or private events and invite your loved ones.

Event Pages

Add images and create profile pages to illustrate the history and genealogy of your loved one.

Family Tree

Invite unlimited administrators to help you manage every Memorial page you have.

Keeper Administrators

Visitors enjoy unrestricted access to all uploaded images and videos.

Unlimited Media

Create unlimited Memorial pages for your loved ones.

Memorial Pages

You will be able to upload Full HD videos instead of embedded links.

Video Uploading

Your Profile

Add a business user

Edit a business user

Are you sure you want to delete these users from these brands? You will need to manually add these users again.

If the user is a part of multiple brands, you will have to delete the user from each one individually

Delete Users from Brands?

Users Settings & Notifications

Users

Are you sure you want to delete these users? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Are you sure you want to delete this user? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Delete Users from all Brands?

Delete User from Brand?

Are you sure you want to delete {totalDeletes} from this user?

Delete Roles from this User?

Are you sure you want to delete this user from this brand? You will need to manually add this user again.

Delete User from this Brand?

Requires users to confirm their email every time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned OFF, Guest users do not need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned ON, Guest users will need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published. They will receive an email with a confirmation link they must click.

Requires users to confirm their email only the first time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

Email Tribute Validation

If Flagged Content is turned OFF, content that has been flagged will remain public until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

If Flagged Content is turned ON, content that has been flagged will be hidden until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

Hide Flagged Content

Language

Email Notifications

Are you sure you want to delete the Memorial for {name}? This action will permanently remove the memorial from the system.

Delete Memorial?

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned OFF, Memorials will automatically be published.

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned ON, Memorials will only be published if and when you approve them. Memorials can be published or deleted in the Requests center.

Memorial Request Moderation

Moderation Settings

This will permanently delete your account. The business account, and business page will not be deleted. To deactivate your account, there must be another admin user assigned to your organization.

Are you sure you want to deactivate this account?

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, the tribute moderation settings on Memorial pages will be hidden and other Keepers cannot override the tribute moderation settings specified by your organization.

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned ON, other Keepers can view and change the tribute moderation settings of the Memorial pages they manage. (Each Memorial page will default to the organization’s tribute moderation setting upon creation.) 

Override Tribute Moderation

If the AI Content Moderation is OFF, text areas containing profane language will be published.  Tributes can however be flagged and removed at any time.

If the AI Content Moderation is ON, text areas containing profane language will not be published and the user will receive an error message.

AI Content Moderation

When Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, Tributes will automatically be published. Once published, users can flag inappropriate or spam content. You can instantly delete any Tributes published on a Memorial that you administer.

When Tribute Moderation is turned ON, Tributes will only be published if and when you approve them. Tributes can be approved or rejected in the Requests center.

Sheila Hearne Obituary | Altogether