Carol Jane (Sisson) Collins

Carol Jane Sisson Collins (87), died Friday, June 24, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. after a short illness. A native of Tampa, Jane was born on December 10, 1934 to Helen Cusack Sisson and Edward Winder Sisson. She grew up on Davis Islands and spent her youth riding horses, playing tennis, crabbing with her Dad and enjoying the outdoors, as well as summers in Virginia and Canada with her parents’ families.

She graduated from H.B. Plant High School where she was a cheerleader and friend to everyone she knew, rarely if ever missing a class reunion for almost 70 years. She also attended Florida State University and was a member of the Flying High Circus under Coach Haskins, performing aerial arts on the Spanish Web, an irony considering her later fear of heights. She was presented as a Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla Debutante and was a Gasparilla Maid, and was also a proud member of Chi Omega Sorority. She received a bachelor’s degree in studio art, and remained an avid Seminole fan throughout her life. Upon graduation, she began her career in Tampa as a fashion illustrator at Al Yourkunas Advertising.

While at FSU, Jane was introduced by a mutual friend, Coyle Moore, Jr. to the love of her life, the late Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins, Jr., who was attending the United States Naval Academy at the time. They were married on June 10, 1959 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tampa. They spent their first year of marriage at Bethesda Naval Hospital while Roy recovered from a plane crash, which led to her fear of heights and flying. Jane never left his side throughout the ordeal!

As a Navy wife, she moved 15 times throughout Roy’s naval career, living in various port cities up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Charleston, S.C. and Norfolk, Va. to Newport News, R.I. and Key West, Fla. before settling back in her hometown of Tampa to raise their four children. Friends joked that Roy may have run the Navy, but Jane was the family CEO.

Jane and Roy continued to stay connected to the Academy, attending just about every class reunion and many other events, including dozens of Army Navy games with fellow classmates and also dear friends from West Point, making an annual wager on who would win.

Her patriotism was always on full display whether in her home, on her person or through her actions. She and Roy seldom missed military services on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, or Veterans Day, often driving hundreds of miles for a short speech or just to visit wounded veterans. They both “walked the talk.”

And when they weren’t traveling for business or for a military function, they were driving somewhere. Whether it was multiple cross-country trips in the family station wagon – sleeping one night in the car and one night in a hotel – or crisscrossing Florida for Roy’s 2006 U.S. Senate campaign, Jane always kept her sense of humor even through more than one flat tire.

Other than college and Roy’s years of military service, Jane was a constant resident of Davis Islands and served on the Davis Islands Civic Association Board of Directors. She taught preschool at Seaborn Day School – Davis Islands, was a partner in The Owl and the Pussycat, a children’s clothing store in south Tampa, and also worked for Classic Garden Designs. She was a lifelong member and supporter of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, as well as a member of the Junior League of Tampa and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She was passionate about animals and was rarely without a dog in her life. She loved her family above all else, and especially enjoyed family trips to Dog Island with her children and later grandchildren. She will be remembered for her simple elegance, Southern charm, quick wit and kindness to everyone she met. Her wicked sense of humor to deal with all of life’s challenges was apparent until the end.

Collins was preceded in death by her parents Edward Winder Sisson and Helen Cusack Sisson, and her husband of 51 years Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins, Jr. She is survived by her sister, Patricia Sisson Moore; sisters-in-law Jane Collins Aurell (John), Mary Call Collins Proctor (Palmer), and Darby Collins Smith (Richard); children Carol Jane Collins Smith (Gregg), Helen Call Collins, LeRoy Collins III (Mary Ellen), and Edward Sisson Collins (Julianne); grandchildren Phillip Call Jacob (Hadley), Virginia Darby Smith Evans (Tommy), Gregory Coyle Smith, Christian Alexander Ines, Sara Ines Davies (Will), Hannah Collins Smith, Katharine Grace Smith, Ayden Elizabeth Collins, LeRoy Collins IV, Cora Broocke Collins and Caroline Brevard Collins; great grandchildren Clare Halloran Evans and Liam Clegg Evans; and many nieces and nephews.

The family would also like to thank Kim O’Neil for her kindness, love and support to Jane over the last nine years.

A private graveside service will be held in Tallahassee, Fla. at the family’s ancestral home, The Grove, on Tuesday, July 19 at 9am. A memorial service will also be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, August 27, at 11am. The family will receive guests in the Parish Hall starting at 10am, just prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Foundation, 509 E. Twiggs St., Tampa, FL 33602, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, ATTN: Development, 3607 N Armenia Avenue, Tampa, FL 33607, or to a charity of your choice.