Dolores (Dede) Heron, most recently of Middletown, passed away April 3, 2021. She was born June 29, 1923, to Charles and Helen Moraller in Plainfield. Dede was raised in Fair Haven on Harvard Road and graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven High School, Class of 1940. She followed by graduating from Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Manhattan.
Dede was employed in Midtown Manhattan as a secretary until meeting her future husband, William G. (Bill) Heron, at a U.S.O. dance in Red Bank during World War II. She married Bill Sept. 25, 1943, before he shipped out to fight in the Pacific. They recently celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary. Throughout her life she resided in Little Silver, Puerto Rico and Maryland.
She volunteered in the O.R. at Riverview Hospital for many years. While the family were members at the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank, there were many years spent racing sailboats. Dede’s biggest accomplishment was winning the 1968 U.S. National Women’s Racing Championship, known then as The Adams Cup Trophy, with June Method and Betty Howie-Power. After William’s retirement they resided in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay, where they would sail their 47-foot sailboat by themselves to the Caribbean Islands to winter there until spring. Dede and Bill also made many cross-country drives to visit family and friends.
She is survived by her loving husband William of Middletown; her four sons and their wives, Michael and Deirdre of Pleasant Hill, California, Jim and Darlene of Panama City Beach, Florida, Paul and Jacqueline of Red Bank, and David and Monica of Cartersville, Georgia.
Arrangements are private and under the direction of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home, Middletown.
The article originally appeared in the April 8 – 14, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
