JEAN PRING SHEERAN, 96, of Centerport, New City and Montauk, NY, and Ocean Pines, MD, passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Luray, VA, on November 18, 2016. She was born July 25, 1920, at home on Isles Road, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, Australia, to Walter George Pring and Elizabeth Mulholland Pring.
Mrs. Sheeran is predeceased by her husband, John D. Sheeran of New York, a graduate of St. John’s Law School, and former Vice President, Director of Government Contracts, at Plessey Dynamics Corporation. They began their storybook love affair of 52 years while Mr. Sheeran served in the Pacific during World War II and the future Mrs. Sheeran was a Volunteer at the U.S.O. Red Cross in Brisbane. They were later married on May 24, 1947 in Pawling, New York.
Mrs. Sheeran attended the Brigidine College in Brisbane. Upon her arrival in the U.S., she was employed by the British Overseas Airways Corporation, then located in the Atlas Building, Rockefeller Center, N.Y.
She is the granddaughter of the esteemed Richard Loram Pring, a London botanist who served with the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, and a general storekeeper, as well as a director of two mining companies in Gympie, and his wife, Eliza Brown Pring, a mid-wife, of Devonshire, London. She is also the granddaughter of the beloved mining engineer Patrick Mulholland and Mary Hoey Mulholland, a mid-wife, and previous owners of Hoey’s Land in Motherwell, Scotland. Mrs. Sheeran was also the niece of Samuel Pring of Gympie and the storied P.J. Madden and Catherine Mulholland Madden, owners of Finney’s Hill Silver Mine, now part of the University of Queensland Mining Department.
Mrs. Sheeran is predeceased by her brother, Richard Pring, an Australian government architect, her sister Marie Pring Loth, a devoted volunteer at Mater Hospital in Brisbane, and an infant sister, Josephine Pring. She is survived by her four children, John (Maureen) Sheeran, Jr. of New York, Peter (Mimi) Sheeran of Texas, Patricia Sheeran of Nevada, and Claire (Dale) Levin of Virginia. She was the beloved grandmother of seven grandchildren and three step-grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Mrs. Sheeran is also survived by her sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary Sheeran, and several nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Whispering Pines Assisted Living, c/o Ms. Susan Saunders, Administrator, P.O. Box 48, Luray, Virginia 22835.
