Josephine "Jody" Hensley

Philanthropist, activist, dreamer, lover, laugher, storyteller, thought-partner, crafter, player of games, reconciler, trainer, facilitator, singer, dancer, sister, mother, grandmother, and friend, Josephine “Jody” (Sinner) Hensley, 64, of Westborough, MA, and Casselton, ND, passed away unexpectedly of natural causes on Saturday, September 19, 2026.

There lived in Jody a great, bold intelligence bursting to act in the world, to make a difference, to stand for what is good and right and always what is best for people—a conviction that every person deserves equally to be fed and clothed and housed and educated, cared for, included, and loved. It shone through everything she did.

She is the beloved wife of Lester Hensley, mother of Jordan (Jessie) Hensley and Benedict (Corey) Everly-Hensley, and GrammyJo to Ava Barker Hensley, born to Jordan and Jessie one week before her passing.

Jody was predeceased by her parents, Tom and Lois Sinner, and her parents-in-law, Peter and Jillian Hensley. She is survived by her Sinner siblings Tom (Jan) Sinner, Jr., of West Fargo, ND; Terry Sinner of Sauk Rapids, MN; Patricia (Dale) Neuschwander of St. Joseph, MN; Nick (Christine) Sinner of Fargo, ND; Christopher Sinner of Fargo, ND; and Sharon (Mark) Hemann of Chanhassen, MN; and her Hensley siblings Kenton (Larissa) of Ithaca, NY; Mark (Karen) of Northampton, MA; and Julia (Trey) of Santa Fe, NM; and many nieces, nephews and dear friends.

Jody grew up sixth of seven in a large Catholic family on a North Dakota farm. The loss of that farm at auction broke her heart, and she championed smaller and family farms for the rest of her life. She loved the Midwest and returned to it often and especially for annual summer gatherings with her extended family at "The Lakes." She never left the plains behind; she brought them with her, along with the groundedness of farm life and the fun and humor of North Dakota culture. She famously misheard the Gap Band’s 1982 lyric “You dropped a bomb on me” as “You dropped a farm on me.” In her own delightful way, she dropped a farm on all of us. And we love her for it.

Jody left the plains for the East Coast and worked her own way through to a degree in political science at UMass Amherst—an act of tenacity and self-actualization. There, as a Resident Assistant steeped in training on sexism and racism, she was promoted to staff leadership. When the hiring committee chose Lester, a white, South African, man, as RA for her dorm floor, she was understandably incensed. In time, they bonded over ideas, ideals and the anti-apartheid divestment movement. They were married 38 years. Together they built EMSEAL Joint Systems into a company known across its industry for quality, integrity and decency. Lester would advise business students that a key to success was to “partner well”: Jody was his life partner at home and his thought partner at work, and her organizational development expertise immeasurably shaped the company’s culture.

She earned a master’s in instructional design and organization development at UMass Boston. She was Legislative Liaison for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, then Senior Training Associate at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at UMass Lowell, where she trained hundreds of planners from manufacturing companies and wrote a nine-course, EPA-sponsored national pollution prevention curriculum. She later served as liaison for the Commonwealth Partnership between UMass and the state’s environmental agencies. Her specialty was getting people with competing interests into one room and helping them find a way forward together.

Jody was deeply involved in her sons’ lives. Believing learning starts early, she made sure Jordan heard Spanish daily from his first nanny; he later majored in Spanish. Benedict took the love of singing he got from his mother and turned it into a career in music and opera. She welcomed her sons’ spouses completely. For Jessie’s first Christmas at Arch Street, Jody made a Hanukkah prayer corner in her front window. When Corey was finishing his doctorate, she arrived with a yellow legal pad and asked, “How are we going to get this PhD done?”—then helped make his UK research possible and saw him through. Friends who have seen the photo of Jody holding baby Ava say they won’t forget the look on her face.

At home in Westborough she served on the School Committee and the Advisory Finance Committee, including terms as chair of both. She served on the Master Plan Advisory Committee and the Housing Partnership and in many roles in the Westborough schools. She helped design and deliver the family religious education program at St. Luke’s and led its music ministry.

Jody was a self-described “place-based” person. This meant sinking roots deeply through every person she met and supporting local organizations serving unmet needs. Sensing the loneliness epidemic before the Surgeon General named it, she supported kindness-grounded organizations such as Westborough Connects and Community of Care in Casselton. Drawing on her farm upbringing, she warned against the commoditization of addictive substances and became a nationally respected voice for substance abuse prevention as a State Coordinator for SAM Massachusetts and a leader with the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance. A colleague wrote that substance-use prevention across the nation was “expanded and strengthened because of Jody’s passion, energy, and her beautiful, brilliant mind.” She carried this and other convictions to the National Mall and the halls of Capitol Hill.

Her generosity reached far and near: a sibling who needed a place to land, a brother she helped look after for decades, parents in their final years. At the beginning of this year, she cared for her mother-in-law Jillian in her last days with tenderness and style: dignified dinners, a chic bed jacket, a bit of sparkle. Her philanthropy supports causes close to her heart, among them justice, kindness and inclusion, services for the differently abled, and respectful compensation for artists and musicians.

Inspired, like generations of her family, by the quiet rhythms of the abbey and monastery of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s in Collegeville MN, Jody understood that inner life requires space, stillness, and intention. She leaned into the mystical tradition of thinkers like Richard Rohr and found God revealed in the natural world. She challenged the Church when it fell short, yet loved its community as a sacred space to wrestle together with life’s hardest questions. She embraced the mystery of faith, choosing wonder and shared presence over prescriptive dogma.

Anyone who knew Jody knew her curiosity, her shining, penetrating intelligence and how clearly she could put into words what others only felt. She was elegant and unsentimental, dignified and very funny. She taught us all how to hang spoons on our noses, as had generations of Sinners. She filled her home with color, art, music, pottery and plants. Her birthday/Christmas/special-occasion gifts given to others were famous because of the research, intention, and love in every one.

Rest now, my love.

Calling hours at the Pickering & Son Westborough Funeral Home, 62 West Main Street, Westborough, are Friday, October 2, from 4 to 7 P.M.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, October 3, at 10:00 A.M. in St. Luke the Evangelist Church, 70 West Main Street, Westborough. Burial will follow in St. Luke's Cemetery.

To honor her legacy of giving, please consider a donation in Jody's memory to:

Westborough Connects

or

Community of Care Casselton ND

If planning to attend, please celebrate Jody's love of all things bright and beautiful by including joyful colors in your wardrobe.

If you were unable to attend, there is a recording of the livestream at this link.