Verna Lillian Rejent Shearin, 88, a resident of Arnold since 1986 and recently of Sunrise Senior Community in Severna Park, died of natural causes Sept. 4 at FutureCare Chesapeake in Arnold after a brief illness.

Born Jan. 1, 1916, in Buffington, Pa., Mrs. Shearin was a military wife who accompanied her husband on Army tours of duty to Hampton, Va., Riverside, Calif., Charlotte and Fayettville, N.C., Gelenhausen, Germany, Orleans, France and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

Mrs. Shearin worked for the Department of the Navy at Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Aberdeen, Md.

She was a member of the Arnold Senior Center and a volunteer at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Aberdeen and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Severna Park.

Among her interests were crafting, painting, duck carving, ceramics, sewing and crocheting.

In 1941 she married Ret. Army Chief Warrant Officer George Seward Shearin, who died in 1990.

Surviving are three daughters, Carolyn Shearin-Jones of Columbia, Md., Mary Shank of Arnold and Roseanne Thompson of Graysonville, Md.; one sister, Florence Hunter of Millville, N.J.; 10 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and 14 step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held at 1 p.m. tomorrow at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 689 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park. Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Memorial contributions, in lieu of flowers, can be made to Our Daily Bread, c/o Catholic Charities, 320 Cathedral St., Baltimore, MD 21201.

As Published in the Capital Newspaper Annapolis Maryland on 9/12/2004