The family and extended family of John William Cossart Sr. would like to announce his passing on June 21, 2022.
John (87) was born on April 19, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Dorchester, Mass. with his parents and brother. He married Mary O’Connell in 1961, moved to Stoughton, Mass. and had 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy. John completed 2 tours of duty in Vietnam with the Navy Seabees. He retired out of the Navy Reserves as a Lt. Commander after 26 years.
After returning from the war, he moved his family to Cohasset, Mass. where they lived until the late 70’s. He was then transferred to Somerset, New Jersey while working for New England Bell and AT&T, as part of the project team for cellular. In the early 80’s he was transferred to Atlanta, Ga., when the cellular project team, Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), began divestiture. Also, during this time, he and our mother became foster parents for infants given up for Adoption. He retired from the BellSouth Corp. in 1995. John then moved with his wife, Mary, to Ocala, Florida around 2000 and started a horse breeding operation. After a few years enjoying that pursuit, they decided to really retire and moved into the Villages Community in the Sumter Landing area.
He married his second wife, Jenny, in 2008, which grew our family by 3 stepbrothers. John is preceded in death by his first wife, Mary, his son Johnny, and his second wife, Jenny. He leaves behind his 3 beloved daughters and their husbands Lee Heaney (Sean) Donna Kelley (Bob) Amy Collins (Tommy) 2 Grandsons Chris Heaney and Nicholas Heaney, 1 great grandson Harrison Heaney. 3 stepsons Bobby Andrews (Rosemary), Andy Andrews, and Jimmy Andrews.
John was a devout Catholic and very active in helping the Church and serving his faith. He was an Usher and helped to build a couple of Churches by using his Engineering and Architectural experiences. His last being St. Vincent de Paul in Wildwood, FL. He was very proud of his Law degree accomplishment by going to school at night while raising and supporting a growing family. He was consistently praised and honored during his Navy years. For recreation, John enjoyed bowling, skeet and trap shooting, and golfing. His last loves these past few years were definitely the Golf and dining out with his gang of friends every week.
Please join us at his Funeral Mass to Celebrate his life at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Wildwood, Florida on Saturday July 16, 2022 at 11am.
In lieu of flowers a donation to either St. Jude Children’s research hospital or St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in our Father’s name would be appreciated. We want to give heartfelt thanks to Sumter Senior Assisted Living for the exceptional and loving care that they showered on our dad. Also, Compassionate Care hospice for the amazing things that they did for our family and our dad in the end.
