Donald Heneberry
February 7, 1931 – April 9, 2024
Donald E. Heneberry, 93, of Media, Pa., formerly of Kennett Square, Pa., and New Carrollton and Ellicott City, Md., passed away peacefully Tuesday, April 9, 2024.
Born Feb. 7, 1931, in Decatur, Ill., Don was a son of the late Will and Mary Alice (Bresnan) Heneberry. Don was raised on the family farm in Moultrie County, Ill.
He graduated from Bethany High School in Bethany, Ill. in 1949 and from the University of Illinois (U of I) in Champaign, Ill. in 1953, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, double majoring in French and library sciences.
With a deep love of music ingrained in them by their mother, Don and his twin brother, Dave, frequently sang two-part harmony at their church and high school. They continued performing at dances and other campus events while attending U of I, during which time they tied for first prize on the Horace Heidt radio show in 1950.
Don taught himself to play the banjo, and in the early 1980s, he joined the Federal Jazz Commission (FJC), a New Orleans-style jazz band formed in 1976 that became one of the longest-running musical acts in Washington, D.C., performing weekly at Colonel Brooks’s Tavern in the District’s Brookland neighborhood. Don played banjo and sang with the FJC for 25 years, including performing at the White House, the Smithsonian Institution and various locations in the United States and Ireland.
Over the years, Don and Dave sang together at every opportunity. Their last performance was on their 93rd birthday in February 2024.
While Don and his future wife, Joan Kirts, attended U of I at the same time, they didn’t formally meet until after graduation in Washington, D.C. where they had both moved in the mid-1950s. During a chance meeting at St. Patrick’s Church on 10th Street, they discovered they had grown up less than 90 miles apart in rural Illinois. From that day forward there were few days they spent apart. They were married at St. Mary of the Assumption in Sainte Marie, Ill. on April 12, 1958, and spent most of their lives living and working in the Washington, D.C. area.
Don enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program as a college student. Following graduation, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Airforce and Reserves. In 1954, he joined the U.S. intelligence community, working for the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency until his retirement in 1990.
Don is survived by his wife of more than 65 years, Joan (Kirts) Heneberry; five children, Barbara Ann (Raymond Scheren), Constance Allane (Robert Wilsterman), David Will (Anne Madison), Julie Marie (Chris McDade), and Maureen Alice (Kenneth Kelk); 14 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren; and his brother David Heneberry. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Bill and Jack, and his sister, Allane.
Friends and relatives are invited to celebrate Don’s life on Saturday, April 20, 2024, during the visitation beginning at 10 a.m. followed by the Memorial Mass at 11 a.m. at Nativity BVM Church in Media, Pa. The private burial will be in Calvary Cemetery in Media, Pa. at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions, if desired, to Priests of the Sacred Heart (poshusa.org, P.O. Box 900, Hales Corners, Wisc. 53130, 1-800-448-7674).
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Cavanagh Patterson Funeral Home, 43 E. Baltimore Ave., Media, Pa.
