 While in Connecticut, she appeared in the Oscar-nominated short documentary, "A Little Vicious".Before she died she was an author of many beautiful pieces of work including; "News from the Dogs", "Young Dog, Grass and More", and "Trained Man and Dog"

She died at the age of 55 of lung cancer at the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, attended by her daughter Colleen Lehrman from a previous marriage, her husband Robert Tragesser and her brother, James Hearne.She was in addition survived by her father, William Victor Hearne.