Joan M. O'Hanrahan

O'HANRAHAN - Joan M. (nee Hearn) Of Tonawanda. Called home to be with the Lord August 20, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Patrick F. O'Hanrahan Jr.; devoted mother of Mary (Frank) Loiacono, Joan (late Robert) Corey, Peggy O'Hanrahan, Patricia (Jerry) Turski, Kathleen (Douglas) Burger, Maureen (Red) Traina, Theresa O'Hanrahan and P. J. (Lenore) O'Hanrahan; cherished grandmother of 21 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren; loving daughter of the late Joseph and Nora Hearn; dear sister of Elizabeth Everett, Robert (late Patricia) Hearn, Shirley (Franz) Weidman and Francis (Theresa) Hearn; also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends may visit the LOMBARDO FUNERAL HOME (Northtowns Chapel), 885 Niagara Falls Blvd., near Eggert/Sheridan Dr., on Wednesday and Thursday from 3-8 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Amelia's Church, 2999 Eggert Rd., Tonawanda on Friday morning at 11:30 o'clock. Entombment Mt. Olivet Cemetery. When Joan M. OHanrahan started coaching girls in the Town of Tonawanda in the 1950s, she was a pioneer. Virtually all of the girls teams were coached by men. Most of them didnt think female athletes could excel at sports, her daughter Theresa said. She believed that girls could do anything that boys could. Mrs. O'Hanrahan, who went on to coach and mentor hundreds of girls in municipal and church league teams, died Sunday in Elderwood at Williamsville after a lengthy illness. She was 88. She was a founding member of the Town of Tonawanda Girls Athletic Association. She coached softball and basketball teams in Catholic Youth Organization and town leagues. She worked with St. Amelias teams from 1970 to 1982. When she retired after 25 years, she was the towns winningest female coach. Born in Buffalo, the former Joan M. Hearn was a 1945 graduate of St. Nicholas High School, where she played softball and basketball. In 1949, she married Patrick F. OHanrahan Jr., who was an inventory control supervisor at the Ford Stamping Plant in Woodlawn. They had eight children. Her husband died in 2011. After her children were raised, Mrs. OHanrahan worked as a cashier in a Super Duper supermarket in Amherst from 1975 to 1992 and was a receptionist in an H&R Block office in the Town of Tonawanda from 1993 to 2007. A member of St. Amelias Catholic Church in the Town of Tonawanda since it opened in 1953, she was an officer in the St. Amelia Guild, a member of the Home School Association and a Catholic Charities worker.