JEAN MILDRED DORAN HALLI

Jean Doran, the 13th child, 9th daughter, of David Daniel and Sarah Jane Pickard Doran was born on May 22, 1915 at 112 1/2 Evergreen St., DuBois, PA. She was baptized by the Rev. Bernard McGivney at St. Catherine's Church, June 6, 1915; her godparents were Tom Sheridan and Florence Allen. In the 1915? Doran family picture Jean is the baby on the far right; in the 1917? Doran family photograph she sits at her father's feet.

Jean Doran, the last of the Doran girls, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and often recounted vivid memories of her Shadyside home, 5518 Howe Street. Attending St. Paul's Cathedral School, Jean was bright but probably more fun-loving than diligent. Though she desperately longed for a pickle pin, she detested the smell of vinegar so much that she was absent for every annual Heinz Pickle Factory class trip. She and her sister, Ruth, both came down with bad cases of rheumatic fever (St. Vitus Dance); they were kept back a year in schooling. Jean went six weeks to Cathedral High School then transferred to St. Mary's High School where she took the commercial course, graduating June 19, 1932. The nuns told her to save carfare and help out at home. Jobs were impossible to find in the Depression. Later she would attend some classes at Peabody Night School.

For fun, Jean loved to ice skate, gab on the phone, and party with friends. Young gentlemen knew it was best to get up close to Doran girls before saying hello - a dress on Ruth one day might be on Jean the next day. Howe Street was filled with people, music, and laughter-- always girls giggling & putting up their hair; dogs running around, & wonderful aromas of pies freshly baked. All were welcome except the nasty rat who stole potatoes from the pantry and rolled them, bump, bump, bump, down the basement steps. Jean's mother later killed that rat in the kitchen with a majestic swat of her broom.

For a friend's 1932 Halloween party, Jean & her date dressed as bellhops. There she first set eyes on my father, Robert Wm. Halli, who was wearing, according to mom, a sweater as blue as his eyes. Jean knew he was special immediately. Halli didn't normally party. Bob was a scholarship student at Carnegie Tech. & studied long hours. So Jean waited long hours by the hall phone hoping he would call. Their first date was the play "Of Thee I Sing".

In 1936 Jean got a job at Shanahan's Moving & Storage Company which lasted only 6 months before employees were laid off. Bob Halli graduated from Carnegie in June 1936, with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering (Aero-option) and soon started work designing airplanes at the Glenn L. Martin Company, Baltimore, MD. In the fall of that year, Jean and her best friend, Denise Chappez, took off for a trip to Washington, DC where they called a surprised Bob, who drove down to pick them up. On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1936 Jean Doran and Bob Halli were married by a family friend, Rev. James Hogan of Frederick, MD in St. Brigid's Church, Baltimore (Highlandtown) with Denise & Bob's roommate, Bob Gilson, as witnesses.

In 1939 the couple took the honeymoon they missed three years earlier: They visited Richmond, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, the Shenandoah Valley of Lurray Caverns, Maryland's Eastern shore, Atlantic City and ended up at the World of Tomorrow", the New York World's Fair.

Jean & Bob made frequent weekend visits to see their families in Pittsburgh and for the first 10 years of married life, they had some Doran relative living with them. When children finally arrived (Bob Jr,. 1946 & Nancy Jane, 1949), Grandma Doran, Ruth, and Bill moved into their own Baltimore apartment. Jean was a tireless housewife cleaning and cooking, sanding and painting. She wore old red slacks for the messier jobs. She kept in daily touch with Baltimore relatives by telephone; Bob always called from work around lunch time to check up on things. She never drove a car (she passed the written test but never got to take the driving part) so we often walked up to the York Road street car stop for a downtown shopping trip or movie. Her favorite film was "Gone with the Wind".

Though earlier she made slips and baby clothes on her Eldridge Rotary Sewing machine, Jean really started sewing in the 1960-1970's. In my teen years, I wore a brace for scoliosis (curvature of the spine), so mom made jumpers and A-line dresses that were easy to wear. We both sewed in the basement together and had many a laugh. One dress was known at the ³beer dress² ; it got soaked one night when we knocked over her glass. She once carefully matched a difficult wool check, only to find it was half inside out, and had to be ripped out again.

She loved Brenda Lee songs, "Stardust", Gregory Peck and the Olympic Luge competitions. She detested "The Little Drummer Boy", tomato sauce, and orchids. Her sense of smell was so keen it was said "She could smell a fly fart a mile away!" She enjoyed listening to ocean waves and her CB radio late at night. She loved burnt toast buttered to the edges, butterscotch sundaes, and lemon meringue pie. Happiness was a moist pork roast falling off the bone & family gathered around the Thanksgiving table. She could do an excellent ape-face imitation to amuse Bobby and me; she liked to dance to the Big Band sound. Following her mom's heart attack in 1960, she looked after Sarah, in our home for five years.

Her brown eyes were topped by very light, almost non existent eyebrows. Standing at about 5' 2", she wore a narrow 5 1/2 shoe ; her dresses always "looked better in the back". From her teen years to her death, Jean was a heavy smoker. At age 56 (summer, 1971) she had the first of three heart attacks. She began doing the daily Baltimore Sun crossword puzzle, sitting at the kitchen table with cigarette, coffee, & dictionary -- her feet twisted up on the chair rail. She also began identifying the family photographs. In the winter of 1987/8 after a mild stroke, Jean was diagnosed with both lung and brain cancer. Two days after being transferred from St. Joseph's Hospital to Stella Maris Hospice in Towson, she died at 6.05 am, February 10, 1988 with my Dad and her brother, Bill, at her side. She is buried in the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, Towson, MD.

Jean's addresses in Baltimore as they moved from apartment, to rented, then owned houses were: 3806 Woodlea Ave. (1936); 4807 Althea Ave (1938); 2626 Wycliffe Rd. (1939:6 mos.); 5810 Key Ave. (1939?-1952); 641 Coventry Rd, Towson (2/22/1952-2/1988)

Jean & Bob's children:
Bob Jr. graduated from Boston College, 1968, then received his M.A., PhD. from the University of VA, Charlottesville in 1972. He married Judith M. Hoffmann, Aug. 23, 1969. They moved to Tuscaloosa, AL where Bob has been a member of the English Faculty of the University of Alabama since 1972. Anne Doran Halli was born in 1980; Joseph Hoffmann Halli, in 1983. Following his divorce in 1991, Bob married Deborah Edge, March 11, 1994. They divorced in 1996. Bob teaches and publishes in the fields of Renaissance English poetry, Shakespeare, Milton, folklore & the mystery novel.

Nancy graduated from Bryn Mawr College, 1971, then later attended Drexel University in Philadelphia for a MLS, 1978. She has cataloged books for the Johns Hopkins Library, the Historical Society of PA, and currently is cataloging slides for the Art History, Archaeology, & Growth of Cities Departments of her alma mater. On May 29, 1983, She married Ted Johnson (her heart's delight), a professor of Electrical Engineering at Widener University, Chester, PA, They have lived in Wallingford, PA since 1983.