Melissa Jo (Sherry) Legacki died peacefully in her sleep on January 10th 2015 at her home in Branchburg New Jersey, after a courageous and unflinching battle with the melanoma she was first diagnosed with some 25 years earlier.

She was surrounded by the family and friends she loved and inspired with her grateful heart and joyful faith.


Melissa Jo Sherry was born in February 1968 and raised in Somerville, NJ. An ICS and Immaculata High School graduate, she attended the College of Misericordia and then began a successful career in retail in Short Hills. After marrying Gregory Legacki in 1995, the couple moved to California where Melissa opened Bloomingdale's West Coast flagship store in Palo Alto. In 1999, Melissa and Greg moved back to NJ to start a family and were quickly blessed with Emma followed by Erin 27 months later.


Melissa left the workforce to focus on giving her girls the best possible start in life, and taught them the importance of faith, family and friends. After her children were school aged, Melissa began a faith-filled journey with the Diocese of Metuchen as the Assistant Director of its Pontifical Mission Societies. In this role, she inspired many to appreciate the importance of reaching out in love and kindness to all.


God has procured her from us for her heavenly duties, but Melissa lives forever in the hearts of her husband Gregory, daughters Emma and Erin, mother Mary Jane Boyle, father Joseph Sherry, siblings Jane, JoAnne and Michael, his wife Anna, Mother and Father-in-law Theodore and Margaret Legacki, sister and brothers-in-law Lisa, Jeffrey, James and Glenn, and numerous nieces and nephews as well as an innumerable community of lives she touched with her light heart, rock-solid faith, infectious laugh, and the rarest combination of gentle wisdom and fierce compassion.

"For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4

Relatives and friends are invited to attend visitation at Countryside Funeral Home, 724 Route 202 North, Three Bridges, NJ 08887 on Thursday, January 15 from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. and on Friday, January 16 from 9:15-9:45 a.m.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, January 16 beginning 9:45 a.m. at the funeral home followed by a 10:30 a.m. funeral liturgy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church in Three Bridges. Disposition will follow at Resurrection Burial Park in Piscataway. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to her daughters' college funds C/O and payable to Gregory S. Legacki, PO Box 542, Flemington, NJ 08822.