ACADEMICS - Ursuline Academy

Born Mary Jane Schimanski at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati,
she graduated from Ursuline Academy in 1945. She studied
for two years at Mount St. Vincent College in New York City
before getting a degree from the University of Cincinnati.
She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the
Mummers Guild.
After college she taught French and English at Ursuline, which
she supported for the rest of her life. She served as president of
the Ursuline Academy Alumnae Association for six years.
She left teaching to take a job at Kenyon & Eckhart, a New York
ad agency. She moved back to Cincinnati after landing a job in
the advertising department of the John Shillito Co.
Mrs. A’Hearn loved horses and served as a director in charge
of riding at Fort Scott Camp, a summer camp operated by the
Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Mary Jane
Schimanski A’Hearn ‘45
Woman of the Year 2005
The following is reprinted from The Cincinnati Enquirer,
Friday April 24
Mary Jane A’Hearn enjoyed rides at Kings Island and rafted
the Colorado River in her 70s. Her family has pictures of her
swinging from trees in Costa Rica last year.
She was a character, said her sister, Suzanne Diehl of Mason.
A former English teacher, she would correct everyone’s
grammar. She carried a camera around wherever she went and
snapped pictures of people and sent them copies.
“She was very much a lady—very dignified,” her sister said.
Mrs. A’Hearn, Ursuline Academy’s 2005 Woman of the Year,
died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at Hospice of Cincinnati
in Blue Ash, where she volunteered as a receptionist on
Wednesday evenings. She had been taken there only hours
before her death. Richard, her husband of 45 years, had been
with her every minute since her diagnosis in August,
her sister said.
The Blue Ash resident was 82.
“She had great devotion to hospice,” her sister said. “She got
a lot of other people to volunteer there, too.” Mrs. A’Hearn
also volunteered for Radio Reading Service and at St. Joseph
Orphanage and was a lector at All Saints Church. In Naples,
Fla., where she spent winters, she taught English as a second
language and volunteered at Naples Community Hospital.
In addition to her husband and sister, survivors include:
four sons, Daniel T. A’Hearn of Fort Thomas, Brian W.
A’Hearn of Blue Ash, Matthew V. A’Hearn of Colorado and
Donald F. A’Hearn of Anderson Township; a daughter, Maura
A’Hearn Speidel of Anderson Township; a brother, William H.
Schimanski of Muskegon, Mich.; and seven grandchildren.
A memorial Mass was celebrated at All Saints Church, 8939
Montgomery Road. Burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery
was private.
Memorial gifts are suggested to Ursuline Academy
Scholarship Fund, 5535 Pfeiffer Road, Cincinnati, OH
45242, or Avow Hospice, 1095 Whippoorwill Lane,
Naples, FL 34105.
VOICES SUMMER 2009
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