Sheila (Johnson) Hennessey

PORTLAND – Sheila (Johnson) Hennessey, formerly of Uxbridge, and Whitinsville, Mass., on Dec. 26, 2024, just one day after a holiday that Sheila always and unfailingly made joyful and exceptional for all, we lost our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, cousin, and friend. She died at the age of 85 (or, as she preferred to say, 63) in Portland.

Sheila was charming and irreverent and beautiful. She was lavish in her generosity, brazenly honest in her opinions, deeply welcoming in her acceptance, and had a sense of humor that was dry, biting, and irrepressible.

She graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Milford, Mass., and what is now Worcester State University, where she trained to be a teacher. Sheila became a mother of three after marrying her husband, Dennis Hennessey, Sr., in 1961. They were married until his death in July of 2023.

Always perfectly turned out and sharp as a tack, Sheila was a successful jeweler into her late 70s with multitudes of customers who visited her annually to find gifts for all of the important people and moments in their lives. She adored her work and her co-workers and was especially thankful for the years she spent with her second families at Devon’s Jewelers in Auburn, Mass., and G.M. Pollack & Sons, and then Hannoush Jewelers, in the Maine Mall.

Sheila was predeceased by her brother, Paul Johnson; her son, William J. Hennessey, her son-in-law, James L. Watson, Sr.; and her great-grandson, Oz Edmund Hennessey.

Sheila leaves behind her son, Dennis and his wife Christie (Most), her daughter, Maryann “M.A.” Watson; her grandchildren, Brandon Forsyth and partner Kate, and their children, Lily and Jude; Elizabeth (Hennessey) and husband Justin Pitz, and their children, Ireland, Ivory, and Ace; Erin Hennessey; Shea Watson and fiancé Tucker Geoffroy; Carley and husband Dylan McLeod and their son, Atticus Hennessey; Dennis Hennessey, III; and James L. Watson, II; along with extended family and friends, new and old.

Sheila was truly a “main character” and never ceased committing to the bit. Thus, we’d be remiss if we did not add, at Sheila’s decades-long behest, that she was once the third Runner-Up in the Miss Massachusetts pageant (though, we discourage any efforts to fact check this).

No services will be held at the request of Sheila. Her family would like to profoundly thank her caregivers and friends at Fallbrook Woods Memory Care (she loved and appreciated you all) and the angels of Hospice of Southern Maine.

Should you wish to consider a gift to memorialize Sheila, please “buy yourself something nice.”