Mary DeMario Hearne

Mary DeMario Hearne, Ed.D. passed away at the age of 96 on Thursday, May 31, 2012, at the Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, after suffering a stroke at her home in Falls Church on Wednesday. Dr. Hearne, the last surviving child of Angelo and Enrichetta Di Mario, was born on July 3, 1915 at the Di Mario Ranch in Russell Gulch, near Globe, Arizona. She attended elementary schools in Miami, Arizona, and then worked as a student assistant to the principal of Globe High School, from which she was graduated in May 1935.

Dr. Hearne, the first member of the Di Mario family to attend college, received her bachelor’s degree in 1939 from Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff, Arizona. After college she worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Flagstaff and in San Francisco, California, and for the Social Security Administration in San Francisco and in Phoenix, Arizona. She was graduated in 1959 from Arizona State College in Flagstaff (now Northern Arizona University) with an M.A. in education. She taught school at the William T Machan Elementary School in Phoenix from 1955 to 1962, and was a supervising teacher at the Frederick Burk School, a demonstration school within San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) from 1962 to 1966. From 1966 to 1968, she served with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Monrovia, Liberia to develop the curriculum department of the Monrovia Consolidated School System. From 1968 to 1974 she again served as a demonstration teacher at the Frederick Burk School and then as a supervising teacher in the teacher education department at Hayward State University (now California State University, East Bay) in Hayward, California. From 1974 until she retired in 1985, she worked as an expert consultant in curriculum development with the Office of the Los Angeles County Office of Education. In 1979, at the age of 64, she was graduated with a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.

Following her retirement, Dr. Hearne lived in Long Beach, California, and in 2006 moved to Virginia. She was a member of the congregation at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church of Falls Church, and a member of the Third Order of St. Francis (now Secular Franciscan Order). Following her retirement, she wrote a history of her family, and enjoyed discussing that history with relatives and friends.

Dr. Hearne was preceded in death by her parents, who homesteaded the Di Mario Ranch after their emigration to the United States from Italy in the early 1900’s; her sisters Santina Deiro, Arizona Cubitto, Quinta Hart and Carolina Di Mario; her brothers Mario DeMario, Philip DeMario, Angelo DeMario, Emmett DeMario and Angelo (Bebo) Di Mario; her niece Marilyn DeMario Dodson; and her nephew Michael Deiro Jr. (The family name Di Mario was anglicized to DeMario.)

She is survived by her daughter, Phyllis Hearne West, of Oaxaca, Mexico; her son, Charles Hearne, and his wife, Tatyana, of Falls Church; her grandson Rich West and his wife, Laurie, of Alhambra, California; her granddaughter Laura Goglia of Long Beach, California; her grandson Frank Goglia of Oaxaca; her granddaughter Katya Shcherbakova and her husband, Brien Desilets, of McLean, Virginia; her great-grandchildren Daisy West, Gunter West, Payton Goglia, Aiden Goglia and Yulianna Desilets; her niece, Vicki Hart Bergman, of Cottonwood, Arizona; and her nephews Dan DeMario of San Tan Valley, Arizona, Robert Cubitto of Cademario, Switzerland, Lewis “Bud” Hart Jr. of Phoenix, Arizona, Philip DeMario Jr. of Globe, Arizona, and Tim DeMario of Globe

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Murphy Funeral Homes in Falls Church. A funeral Mass will be held on June 5 at 10:00 a.m. in the chapel of the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Falls Church, and Dr. Hearne will be laid to rest at 11:00 a.m. at the National Memorial Park in Falls Church. Friends of Dr. Hearne are invited to make memorial contributions in her honor to the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Falls Church.