Marie Hern

Mrs. Marie Teresa Hern, age 80, formerly of Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, passed away early Tuesday morning, April 29, 2008 under the loving care of her family and Hospice of Michigan at her daughter's home in Greenville. The daughter of Michael & Jean (Bonnar) Featherstone, she was born on May 29, 1927 at Newcastle upon Tyne in England. After surviving the Nazi blitz of England during World War II, she immigrated to the United States where she met William Walter Hern, Jr., who had just returned from Europe after serving in the U.S. Army. On Dec. 28, 1946, they were married in Indiana, and then made their home in Chicago while Bill attended NorthWestern University and the Chicago Art Institute. They then settled in Milwaukee, where they raised three children and Marie was active in many social causes. In 1971 she founded the Milwaukee Birthright, a non-profit, non-sectarian organization offering assistance to any woman in distress due to an unplanned pregnancy, believing that, If you help the woman, you save the baby. For the next 25 years she served as Birthrights treasurer, secretary, and finally executive director, retiring in 1996. She also was active in her church, Our Lady of Good Hope, serving for 17 years as Youth Minister, and was the first woman allowed to speak from the pulpit in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Her continual support of women in crisis and the unborn was recognized by St. Marys Hospital in Milwaukee when they named the entire sixth floor Hern Hall in her honor. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, William Hern, Jr. on Dec. 28, 1979; a brother, Michael; and a sister, Anne. Surviving are her children, Timothy Michael Hern & Linda of San Francisco, California, Lynn Marie Hern of Dade City, Florida, and Elizabeth Hern & Bob Johnson of Greenville; a sister, Joan Whitefield of Sarasota, Florida; ten grandchildren; eighteen great grandchildren; one great-great granddaugter; and several nieces and nephews. Graveside committal services will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, May 2, 2008 at Forest Home Cemetery, Greenville, with the Rev. Jerry Jones, pastor of the First Congregational Church, officiating. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Marie Hern, please visit our flower store.