Tina DeMao passed away peacefully in her sleep on Monday, August 7th in her home in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. She was sixty-five years old and had struggled with advanced cellulitis and related complications for the last year of her life.

Tina was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1951 as the third child of Percy Taylor Hodges, Jr., and Mildred Ray (Boggs) Hodges. She spent her childhood with her siblings, Billy, Sharon, and Paul on the beaches of East Ocean View and dancing jazz, tap, toe, and ballet. She graduated from Granby High School in 1970 and married Naval Operations Specialist Walter Dennis DeMao shortly thereafter. Once married, she left the Tidewater area and relocated to Dennis's hometown of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Tina spent her twenty-three-year marriage to Dennis as a devoted mother and reluctant homemaker. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1993.

The second act of Tina's life was nothing short of a Cinderella story. She began her career as an unskilled worker on the assembly line at Pennex Products in Verona, Pennsylvania in 1989. In 1992 she began working at Carson Industries in Slate Lick, Pennsylvania. Her active involvement in the union there as a Financial Secretary, Contract Negotiator, and Grievance Chairperson led to a successful career as a Staff Representative for the California Nurses Association (CNA) in 2003 in Sacramento, California and then as a Field Organizer for the United Steelworkers (USW) union based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2004. Tina's financial struggles as a working single mother and her personal experience of the transformative power of work made her a tireless advocate for the union. She spent the last thirteen years of her life organizing thousands of workers across the United States &endash; often championing the underrepresented. Tina was a formidable unionist who loved the union and was loved in return. Her dedication led to many workers around the country having better lives.

Tina was fiercely independent and was happiest in her home watching political news shows and playing online games. She was a proud and vocal supporter of the union and the democratic party and never met an online political debate that she didn't enjoy. She was a voracious reader throughout her life and loved historical and crime romance novels in particular. She was an indulgent grandmother to her cherished grand-dogs -- Buddy, Maya, Mama Scoots, Stanley, and Henry. Tina's greatest legacy is the two equally formidable and fiercely independent daughters who she leaves behind.

Tina was preceded in death by her father, Captain P.T. Hodges, Jr., in 2010 and her mother, Mildred Ray (Boggs) Hodges in 1976. Tina is survived by her daughter, Christine T. DeMao, of Pine Township, PA, her daughter, Bernadette DeMao Hunter, of San Jose, CA, her brother, William "Billy" (Pat) Hodges, of Norfolk, VA, her sister, Sharon (Ron) Hurwitz, of Norfolk, VA, her brother, Paul (Barbara) Hodges, of Currituck, NC, her nephew, John Hodges, of Norfolk, VA, her niece, Sanderlin Hodges, of Elkin, NC, her niece, Allena (Neil) Anglen, of Norfolk, VA, her niece, Chelsea Humphries, of Newport, NC, her nephew, Hunter (Gina) Hodges, of Oklahoma City, OK, her nephew, Jake Hodges, of Currituck, NC, and her grand-dog, Henry, of Pine Township, PA.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to her favorite local charity and animal rescue, Orphans of the Storm, PO Box 838, Kittanning, PA 16201.

The family wishes to extend their gratitude to Rob and Sue Young of Rose Valley, PA, and Carson/Boyer Funeral Home of Rural Valley, PA.