Gwendolyn C. Harkness' Obituary
Gwendolyn (Gwen) Clark Harkness died at home, Wednesday, March 1 2023. She was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, July 23, 1928, a daughter of Carl Gilbert Clark and Lauretta Headley Clark.
Gwen was a 1946 graduate of Wellsville High School, Wellsville, NY; she attended Syracuse University and was 1950 graduate of Alfred University, in Alfred, NY. In 1976 she graduated from the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D. C. She was awarded a Juris Doctor degree on May 16, 1976.
She was admitted to the practice of law in Virginia in 1977 and practiced before the Supreme Court of Virginia, the United States Federal District Court for the 4th Circuit, the Virginia Court of Appeals and practiced in the Circuit Courts of Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria and Leesburg. Her law offices were in Alexandria, Virginia. She remained an associate member of the Virginia Bar.
While living in Wellsville, in 1962, she learned to fly at the old airport location in Wellsville; the then fixed-base operator was “Mote” Tarantine who taught her to fly. Her piloting days ended when she moved to Springfield, Virginia in 1971.
From 1994 until 2000, she and David Murphy owned and operated the “Galileo” a sixty-three foot, Dutch cargo ship built in 1895 that had been converted into a live-aboard canal and river home. From Spring through Fall, with friends and family flying in they roamed from Holland through Belgium and France on the major canals, on the Rhone River into the Mediterranean Sea then returning to Holland by way of the Rhine River. Gwen was a dedicated Earth traveler.
Survivors are her son, Paul S. Lester of Asheville, NC; her daughters; Shelley Lester Delaney and Leslie Harkness Wortman and her son-in-law, Louis John Wortman all of Leesburg, VA. Also surviving are grandsons; Thomas Brooke Delaney of Winchester, VA, Louis Joseph and Andrew Gibson Wortman, and granddaughter Micaela Lynn Wortman all of Leesburg, VA. In addition she has two great-grandsons; Camden Alexander Delaney and Maverick Carter Delaney and three great granddaughters; Teagan Kelly Delaney, McKinleigh Ridge Delaney and Sloan Piper Delaney.
A private memorial service will be held with arrangements by Loudoun Funeral Chapel and Crematory in Leesburg, Virginia Internment will be at Union Cemetery, in Leesburg, at the convenience of the family.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are encouraged to be made to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia.
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