Obituary of Victoria Harkness

Victoria J. Harkness died at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, NY on the evening of October 8th, 2024, after a life-long battle with diabetes and kidney disease which ultimately lead to heart failure.

Born in Huntington, NY in 1969, she was raised in the 1970s and 80s.  She was witty in a somewhat sharp and sardonic way, loved to laugh, and confident in her mental acuity, would debate passionately, and speak her mind, especially against all manor of injustice.

Like her father, she developed a life-long love of learning the English language, Olde and Middle English and literature (especially Chaucer, Dante and Shakespeare) and graduated from Stony Brook with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature.  She received her New York State Teaching Certificate and began teaching English in a New York City Public School in Brooklyn.  As fate would have it, she had to withdraw from teaching due to medical problems that would continue to plague her throughout the rest of her life.

Despite her health problems, she was the eternal student of English Literature, attending various prestigious schools such as Cambridge University in the UK, Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, Queens College and St. John’s University in Queens, New York always wanting to complete her Master’s and/or Doctorate degrees, but was repeatedly forced to withdraw from school to focus on her health.  She worked for a period of time as a Teacher’s Assistant at Stony Brook University and also tutored English and Creative Writing and SAT preparation at Huntington Learning Center, Dream Tree Academy and also for private students.

She loved her parents, Janet and Donald Harkness who provided considerable support throughout her life to help ease her struggles until their passing in 2018 and 2019, respectively. She fondly remembered doing crossword puzzles with her mom while sipping tea and eating egg salad sandwiches, a favorite of both.  She and her father would constantly recite various passages of literature and poetry out of the blue and they loved to debate the merits of proper word selection and comma placement when he would review her draft research papers or she his Shakespeare lectures. Among her fondest memories of him was spending time bird watching at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

She is survived by her four brothers and their spouses/partners: Bruce and Yatsumi (Baki), Jeffrey and Kathy, Timothy and Carla, and Christopher and Beth as well as her close friend Keith who lived with her and helped care for her until she passed.  Much loved by family and friends, she will be missed.

Visitation: MA Connell Funeral Home; Thurs. Nov. 14, 4:00 to 8:00 PM.

Service: MA Connell Funeral Home; Thurs. Nov. 14, 6:30 PM.

Interment: Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, NY; Fri. Nov. 15, 1:00 PM.