Juliet Hennessy
- Published: February 13, 2025
Juliet “Judy” W. (Liddle) Hennessy died Jan. 10, 2025, at home in Yellow Springs. She was 97 years old. She was born March 28, 1927, in Rockville Centre, New York, to Dr. Albert W. and Ruth P. Liddle and joined two sisters, Dorothy and Jean. At the time, her father taught English literature, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and others at New York University. He was recruited by Arthur Morgan to come to Yellow Springs and teach at Antioch College.
Shortly after Judy’s birth, the young family moved to Yellow Springs in a 1925 Model T Ford, arriving and camping in a tent in Glen Helen near the Birch Creek Cascades for several weeks, until lodging was available. When Mrs. Lucy Morgan came to welcome the family to Yellow Springs and Antioch, she left her calling card in the tent flap, as they were out and about.
Judy attended the Antioch School as a child, and the lessons, information and values learned there she used and often referred to throughout her life. She enjoyed spending time with her sisters, being especially close to sister Jean, just one year older than her. Life in Yellow Springs was simpler in the 1930s and 1940s, and Judy often fondly referred to her childhood and growing up in Yellow Springs as idyllic. She spent a good deal of time and loved the natural beauty and peace of the Glen and remembered skating on a pond during the winter as well as picnics, wildflower viewing and walks in the spring and summer.
As a faculty child, she grew up attending dozens of events, plays, presentations and other events at Antioch. She loved the family home on Xenia Avenue, where her father created a beautiful garden and natural oasis from what was an empty backyard. People walked nearly everywhere; a train stopped at the depot downtown and could take travelers all the way to Columbus and beyond; and later, a streetcar ran down the middle of Xenia Avenue, right past the family’s home. A bus took passengers to Springfield or Dayton to shop at the stores. Judy loved to visit and talk with friends of all ages in Yellow Springs, where she always felt a sense of place and connection for her entire life.
Judy, her parents and sisters went on many exciting and memorable adventures together, especially during the summers, despite the hard times of the Great Depression. They spent most summers at her paternal grandparents’ farm in upstate New York, near Argyle, so her father could help with the farmwork. She treasured the memories of these summers with family for the rest of her life. The family traveled out west in 1936 and to Europe in 1937, when Judy was 10, crossing the Atlantic by ocean liner.
She graduated from Bryan High School in 1944 in the midst of World War II, in a class of just 29 members, many of whom stayed in touch for the rest of their lives. The entire class put on the senior class play, and Judy and her sister Jean made up half of the cheerleading squad.
Immediately following high school, Judy began working at Wright Field in several capacities, getting rides to and from work from neighbors and friends who also worked there. In the spring of 1945, full of life and energy, she entered The Ohio State University in Columbus, graduating with her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and home economics in 1949. She thought Ohio State was huge, but made many friends and excelled in her classes. Among other things, she was on homecoming court as the independent representative and was sponsored and backed by the returning war veterans group.
Turning down graduate studies at Ohio State, Judy began working at Antioch College in the alumni office and later, in the co-op office, for J.D. Dawson. It was here that she met then student Leo Hennessy, from Buffalo, New York — a WWII Navy veteran, studying chemistry, and who became the love of her life. They married in July, 1950, in St. Paul Catholic Church in Yellow Springs, where Leo worked for Charles Kettering and later at Vernay Laboratories after graduating in 1951.
Judy eventually worked for Morris Bean & Co. The couple lived in Yellow Springs for 10 years, and had three sons there — Kevin, Nick and Brian — going on to live in several other locations. Their fourth son, Kelly, was born while they lived in the Cleveland area, settling in Chagrin Falls. Judy and Leo spent many happy years together and raised their four children, always visiting their Yellow Springs family regularly. They moved to Lake Tansi in Crossville, Tennessee, upon Leo’s retirement, and they lived there until Leo’s death in 2002. Thereafter, Judy returned to her beloved childhood town of Yellow Springs, to be close to her sisters, Dorothy and Jean, and brother-in-law Dick. She remained for the rest of her life
Judy was preceded in death by her husband of 52 years, Leo Hennessy; her parents, Albert and Ruth Liddle; sisters, Dorothy Vandiver and Jean DeWine; brother-in-law Dick DeWine; and grandparents Charles and Emma Liddle.
She is survived by her sons, Kevin (Mary), of St. Paul, Minnesota, Nick, of Bowling Green, Ohio, Brian (Kelli), of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, and Kelly (Heidi) Hennessy, of Troy, Ohio; nephew, Mike DeWine (Fran); niece, Juliet Vandiver (Christopher) Waldron; grandchildren, Broc (Rachel), Shawn (Joe Feurstein), Ty, Derek, Jordan, Danica, Alexander, Joshua (Kelsey), Shane, Kasey (Chelsea), Maggie and Hannah Hennessy and Grace (Lawrence) Erskin; and great-grandchildren, Avery, Willow, Beckham, Addington, Savanna, Jade and Autumn Hennessy, Charlotte Feurstein, and Milan, Royce and Lennox Erskin.
Arrangements are being handled by Jackson Lytle Funeral Home in Yellow Springs. A memorial service is planned for this spring at Rockford Chapel, on the Antioch College campus. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Tecumseh Land Trust in Yellow Springs.
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