Eileen A. Hocko

Eileen Ann (Donnelly) Hocko passed away peacefully on March 4, 2024.

Eileen was born on June 20, 1931 in Newark, NJ. She graduated from The Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art before starting a career managing the gift department of Bonwit Teller in Manhattan and then Short Hills.

Eileen spent summer weekends in Point Pleasant Beach where she met her husband. They settled in North Plainfield, spending summers in that same seashore town.  It was 1968 when Eileen returned home from a day trip to PPB to tell her husband she bought a summer house, down the street from The Riptide where they had met some years before.

Eileen’s take charge attitude and savvy led her to start her own company, Whimsy, Inc. As an artist she created handmade products that she sold in gift shops throughout the tri-state area.  She continued to create art using various mediums throughout her life.

Eileen was a voracious reader, mysteries mostly but also, being honored to be a part of The Greatest Generation, she immersed herself in its history.  She was also proud of her Celtic heritage, receiving dual citizenship from Ireland.

Eileen is predeceased by husband, Frank J. Hocko, Sr. (2015); parents, Walter and Agnes (Carragher) Donnelly; and sister, Agnes Donnelly.  She is also survived by son, Frank J. Hocko, Jr. of Point Pleasant Beach; daughters, Colleen and her husband, Donald DeGutz, of Fairhope, Alabama; and Pegeen and her husband, Chip Holland; and grandchildren, Eila and Dyre Holland of Flemington.

Cremation is private.  Services are under the direction of the Sheenan Funeral Home, 233 Dunellen Ave., Dunellen, NJ.

Please consider donating to:  Dementia Society of America® , P.O. Box 600, Doylestown, PA 18901 or dementiasociety.org in lieu of flowers

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