Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Filer, Emily Harrison Symington November 4, 2021
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 August 24, 2025, 3:18 pm

Virginian-Pilot November 7, 2021
Emily Symington Harkins Filer, 85, passed away on Thursday, November 4, 2021, in 
a Virginia Beach hospital. She was the retired founder and executive director of 
Lee's Friends. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she was the daughter of the late 
Grace Cover Symington and Frank Fife Symington. She was preceded in death by her 
husband, Robert Hoagland Filer, her daughter, Emily "Lee" Harrison Harkins, a 
stepdaughter Mary Wilson Filer Pross, her sister, Grace Symington Rienhoff, and 
her brother, Macduff Symington.
She was a 1954 graduate of Garrison Forest School in Garrison, MD, and Miss 
Porter's School in Farmington, CT. She also had an Honorary Doctorate of Humane 
Letters from Providence Bible College of Theology, that she received in 2010. 
She was a certified volunteer administrator and a Chaplain for Sentara, CPE 
Level I and II. She was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd 
and attended Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
Left to cherish her memory is her son Montgomery (Monty) Fox Harkins, 
stepdaughters, Elizabeth DuVal Filer and Anne Filer Vogt; her grandchildren, 
Martin Alexander Harkins, Benjamin Lee Harkins (Elise), Bastien Fox Harkins 
(Gigi); her step-grandchildren, Janice, Kaitlyn, and Ruth; and great-
grandchildren, Lidia Harkins Delgado and Agnes Harkins; as well as many nieces, 
nephews, cousins, extended family and friends from around the world.
A memorial service will be conducted at 11 am on Thursday, Nov. 11th in the 
Trinity Chapel of Westminster Canterbury on the Bay. A simple reception will 
follow. She will be buried with her family in Elmwood Cemetery in a private 
ceremony at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Lee's Friends, 7400 
Hampton Blvd., Suite 201, Norfolk, VA 23505, or Virginia Wesleyan University, 
1534 Wesleyan Dr., Norfolk, VA 23502, or St. Paul's School Scholarship in Lee's 
name, 325 Pleasant St., Concord, NH 03301, or to the Westminster-Canterbury 
Foundation, 3100 Shore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23451. H. D. Oliver Funeral 
Apts., Norfolk, is handling arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to the 
family through www.hdoliver.com.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/norfolkcity/obits/f/filer16827nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/vafiles/

File size: 2.8 Kb