Harriet Hastings Simpson's Obituary
HARRIET HASTINGS SIMPSONOctober 5, 2011It is with great sadness that we report the death of Harriet on Oct. 5th, 2011. She was a mother, friend mentor, and scholar who was loved and respected by all who were lucky enough to have known her.She was gracious, brilliant and absolutely charming with a keen sense of consideration and appreciation of those who sought her presence.Harriet was born in Miami on July 28, 1938 and grew up in Sarasota. She is a graduate of Florida State University. After a brief career as a teacher she got a job as an entertainment writer/editor and the course of her life was determined.She moved up the ladder of command as she moved to various papers throughout the Midwest. She was the Executive Business Editor with the St. Petersburg Times and left there for an executive position with the News-Press.She was a hard taskmaster but she worked with a tenderness that forced each individual to achieve their maximum potential. She held herself to an even higher standard of perfection.From 1987 until her retirement in 2005, she worked in various editing roles in The News-Press newsroom, including business editor, special projects editor and assistant managing editor.She was a beloved friend, mentor and teacher to many of The News-Press journalistsHarriet was quite simply a joy and her passing leaves many with a heavy heart.Harriet or Hastings as she was fondly called by many, is survived by two sons, Gregory of Great Barrington, MA and Turner of Atlanta, GA; brothers Preston (Delphine) Howe of White Pigeon, MI; nieces and nephews and her best friend Frances D. Williams.A memorial service and gathering is scheduled for Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 3-5pm at Fort Myers Memorial Gardens Colonial Family Center located at 1589 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers, Florida. Online condolences may be posted at www.fortmyersmemorial.comIn lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in memory of Harriet Simpson, to if (!aa) var aa = { iframes : new Array(), random : function() { return Math.round(Math.random() * 10000000000); }, pageNum : Math.round(Math.random() * 10000000000), refresh : function(iframeId) { if (typeof(iframeId) != ‘undefined’) { var iframe = document.getElementById(iframeId); if (iframe) iframe.src = iframe.src.replace(/misc=[0-9]+/, ‘misc=’ + this.random()); } else { for (var i in this.iframes) this.refresh(this.iframes[i]); } } }; //no AJAX refresh for inline ads aa.adServer = ‘http://media2.legacy.com/’; aa.target = ” + ‘/3.0’ + ‘/5306.1’ + ‘/1400071’ + ‘/0’ + ‘/-1/size=30×1’ + ‘/adtech;’ + ‘alias=legacy.news-press.lifestory.30×1.1.1;’ + ‘target=_blank;’ + ‘key=’ + escape(‘STJ’) + ‘;’ + ‘sub1=’ + escape(‘St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’) + ‘;’ + ‘sub2=’ + escape(‘https://shop.stjude.org/GiftCatalog/donation.do?cID=13522&pID=18290&frequency_selected=2&memoryFirstName=HARRIET&memoryLastName=SIMPSON&plt=GPLGENLKALSAC1000001’) + ‘;’ ; aa.src = aa.adServer + ‘addyn’ + aa.target + ‘grp=’ + aa.pageNum +’;misc=’ + aa.random(); document.write(“”); document.write(“”); St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital , 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 800-873-6983 www.stjude.org/tribute.
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