Harriet McGinnis' Obituary
Harriet Riggs McGinnis
(born July 11, 1922, died May 29, 2016)
We mourn the passing and celebrate the life of Harriet Riggs McGinnis, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 11, 1922, passed away in Austell, Georgia, May 29, 2016. A Memorial is held at Bethany Methodist Church, Smyrna, GA on Saturday June 25th at 11 AM.
Her parents were Herbert Samuel Riggs, and Sue Ardelle Wells Riggs, of Minneapolis. Her survivors include sister Virginia Riggs Levy of Minneapolis (born 1926), two children, Bryan Timothy McGinnis, Alexandria, Virginia (1949) and Mari McGinnis Borgen, Austell, Georgia (1955), three grandchildren Justin Michael Borgen, of Fairbanks, Alaska (1978), Arik Abel, Raleigh, North Carolina (1978) and Kendra Riggs Borgen, Amsterdam, Holland (1981), and four great grandchildren, Kenai Borgen, Bailee Borgen and Audrey Borgen, of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Juniper Abel, of Raleigh, North Carolina. Her husband Frederick P. McGinnis passed away in 2012. One sister, Catherine Riggs Hildeen, passed away in 1996.
Harriet McGinnis was raised in Minneapolis, graduating from South High School in 1940. She graduated from Asbury University, Wilmore, Kentucky, in 1944, and married an Asbury graduate, Fred McGinnis, in 1948, who was then a Methodist minister in Quincy, Ohio. They moved to Juneau, Alaska in 1950, when Alaska was still a territory, and on to Anchorage, Alaska in 1955. She devoted years to raising her children, but was also active in Methodist church groups, and the Anchorage Women’s Club. When Fred McGinnis became President of Alaska Methodist University, she was very involved hosting university events. And from 1974 to 1984 she served as a personnel analyst and hiring officer for the State of Alaska.
In 1984 Fred and Harriet McGinnis moved to his home state, Georgia, to Marietta and then Austell. Harriet was active as a volunteer with the Wesley Woods home for aging and the Atlanta Historical Society during these years, and cared for her husband in his late illness.
The family is requesting memorial donations be made to Foundation for Wesley Woods, where Harriet McGinnis was an active and awarded volunteer. Please identify a memorial gift in honor of Harriet McGinnis, by mail to 1817 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30329 (or online at WesleyWoods.org)
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