In Memoriam: Longtime Little Silver Resident Virginia Harmon, 88

Longtime Little Silver resident Virginia Catherine Harmon — Aunt Ginny to nieces and nephews and Virginia to friends — passed away peacefully, surrounded by her loved ones, on Sunday, Jan. 8, at her Prospect Avenue home. She was 88.

Born Virginia Catherine Hoag in 1934, in the Stonehurst neighborhood of East Lansdowne in suburban West Philadelphia, Virginia was the youngest child of Frank G. Hoag, a printer, and Margaret Kelly Hoag. The Irish-American Hoag family first arrived in the U.S. in 1818. At the time of Virginia’s birth the family had been in the Philadelphia area for 116 years.

Virginia Harmon
Photo/family via John E. Day Funeral Home

“She was quite proud of her Irish ancestry. In 1936, the Hoag family moved to 7226 Radbourne Road, also in Stonehurst, where they would remain until the early 1970s. Young Virginia attended St. Cyril’s elementary school in Stonehurst and graduated in 1952 from Notre Dame High School in Moylan, PA. Throughout the 1950s and early sixties, Virginia worked as a secretary at a number of companies in Center City Philadelphia, enjoying a lively social life and regularly vacationing with friends on the Jersey Shore and the Poconos, as well as winter trips to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. She also enjoyed spending time with her nieces and nephews, whom she loved very much.”
Loved ones of Virginia Harmon in her obituary

In the summer of 1965 she met Edward George Harmon, an electronics engineer at Fort Monmouth, in Spring Lake. They married in 1967, moved to Red Bank, and later settled in Little Silver.

After raising her son, Teddy (and later Ed), Virginia returned to work as a secretary at Fort Monmouth, retiring in 2004 at 70.

Ed Harmon, Sr. died in 1999. Virginia remained in their home on Prospect Avenue. Her later years were saddened by the passing of her older sisters and brother and the untimely death of her beloved son, Ed, in December 2016.

“In true fashion, Virginia carried on, however, supported as ever by her Catholic faith and benefitting from a circle of neighbors and friends who appreciated her always-upbeat, vivacious personality — ‘Hangin’ in there a ‘day at a time,’ as she always said. It was her desire to remain in her home until she was called to her heavenly reward, reuniting her with her son, who she missed, as well her husband, siblings and parents. Throughout the last two and a half years she was lovingly and meticulously attended to at home by her devoted care-giver, Helena Capagal, an angel on earth.”

Virginia is predeceased by: her husband, Ed Sr.; her son, Ed; her siblings, Marguerite (1920-2010), Anne Regina (1926-2004) and Francis junior (1923-2016).

Virginia is survived by: her goddaughter and niece, Ginnie Goldovich and husband Ron, of Westchester; her niece, Anne Evans and husband Jim, of Downingtown, PA; her nephew, John Suiter, of Chicago; her niece, Marianne Hoag Nunan and husband Tom, of Ambler, PA; her nephew, Thomas Hoag and wife Teri, also of Ambler; a first cousin, Miriam George Kelly of the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Immaculata, PA; her best friend of 70 years, Vera Ramundo, of Lewes, DE; her daughter-in-law, Janice Halpern, of Aberdeen, MD; and several great nieces and nephews.

Virginia will be entombed, privately, with her son, Edward Francis Harmon. A mass of remembrance will be offered at her long-time parish, the Church of the Nativity, Fair Haven, on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023 at 10 a.m. Her nieces Ginnie and Nancie, and nephew John request that memorial donations be made in her name to AFSP — the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, honoring her son, Edward Francis Harmon and her beloved nephew, James Feehery.

— Edited obituary prepared by family via John E. Day Funeral Home