H. Jeanne (Kessling) Cunneen, 84, of Cape Canaveral, Fla. and formerly of Duxbury died on May 24 after a period of failing health.

Mrs. Cunneen, a former high school English and chemistry teacher, was married for 60 years to her husband, William Cunneen, and was the mother of eight children. For many years, the family lived in Duxbury. Mrs. Cunneen’s love of the beach began one summer when the Ohio native traveled to Martha’s Vineyard to work as a waitress. It was there that she saw the ocean for the first time, and also where she met her future husband, Bill, a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

 The couple married in 1952. They lived in West Roxbury, Cleveland, Ohio and then Duxbury. Duxbury became home to the Cunneen family.  Mrs. Cunneen worked at Duxbury Dental, and was a member of Holy Family Church.

 Mrs. Cunneen was an avid tennis player, and loved to travel. She and her husband together visited France, Austria, the Caribbean islands, Bermuda, England and Ireland.

 Her daughter, Mary Ruprecht, recalled her mother as a devoted wife, loving mother and grandmother. “Family was so very important to Mom,” she said, adding, “She also loved Duxbury, the beach, and boating.”

 Mrs. Cunneen leaves her husband Bill; seven children, Robert Cunneen and his wife Rhonda of Kingston, Richard Cunneen of Kingston, Thomas Cunneen and his wife Elizabeth of Beverly, and David Cunneen and his wife Betsy of Cocoa Beach, Fla., Mary Ruprecht and her husband Michael, of Kingston; Anne Sullivan and her husband Rick of Plymouth; and Julie Lassiter and her husband Richard, of Raleigh, N.C. and  the late, William Jr., who died at the age of six months in 1952;  two sisters, Estelle Kessling, SND of Reading, Ohio and Geneveive Leist and her husband Ted, of N.C.; her brother, the late Bernard Kessling of Reading, Ohio; numerous nieces and nephews, and five grandchildren, Alicia (Ruprecht) Whipple and her husband Colby, of Plymouth, Alex and Megan Lassiter, of Raleigh, N.C. Trisha Sullivan, and Terrence Sullivan and his wife Kara; four great-grandchildren, Emma Sullivan, Molly Sullivan, and Hannah Sullivan, all from Middleboro and Taylor Estelle Whipple of Plymouth.

 A memorial service for Mrs. Cunneen will be held Friday, July 20, at 9 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Church, Kingston. Davis Funeral Home in Plymouth is handling the arrangements. The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations in Mrs. Cunneen’s memory may be made to the Sisters of Notre Dame De Namur, 701 E. Columbia Avenue, Reading, OH 45215.