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Mildred "Midge" Christine (Stafford) Harmon, 90, died on December 15, 2013 in The Villages, Florida. She was born on November 26, 1923 in Bayard, West Virginia, a daughter of the late Bessie Della (Moreland) Stafford and Alva Jackson Stafford.
Midge, her parents, and two sisters, Geraldine (Stafford) Layman and Delores (Stafford) Lancaster, lived most of Midge's youth in several coal mining towns in West Virginia and western Maryland. They eventually settled in Gere, West Virginia, one of the Appalachian coal mining towns that Eleanor Roosevelt visited to help during the Great Depression.
Midge recalled seeing Mrs. Roosevelt during one of those visits. Midge's father counseled her to go to Washington, DC to get a job after her graduation. He passed away one week before she graduated.
One week after graduating from Oakland High School, she fulfilled her father's wishes by taking the train from Oakland, Maryland to Washington, DC, where she shared an apartment with a high school friend, and began working at the main office of the Post Office Department.
Midge met her future husband, Roger William Harmon of Biddeford, Maine, at a USO dance in Washington, DC. They married on September 22, 1945, and in February of 1947, their only daughter, Delores Elaine (Harmon) Kight was born. After the war, Roger worked at Safeway Stores where he retired after 39 years. The family eventually settled in Woodlawn, a suburb of Washington, DC, where they lived until Roger's death in 1997. In 2005, Midge moved to Sandy Spring, Maryland to be with her daughter and son-in-law, Charles Kight. In 2011, the family moved to The Villages, Florida.
In 2013, Midge was blessed to spend her last summer in her beloved Oakland, Maryland with Delores and Chuck. Midge loved to cook, sew and spend time with family and friends. Her devotion to God was evidenced by the light in her eyes and smile, her care and concern for others, her prayers for those in need, her daily Bible reading, and her service to God and her Church by singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School and VBS, and by visiting nursing home patients. Midge was a delightful woman who valued her relationships with others to be of utmost importance. Everyone who met her was immediately drawn to her irresistible smile, and instantly loved her.
She will be missed by her family, friends, and all who had the privilege of knowing her.
Surviving are her daughter, Delores Kight and son-in-law Chuck Kight of the Villages, Florida; her sister Delores "Dee" Lancaster and husband Jerry Lancaster of Rowlett, TX; and several nieces and nephews.
Friends will be received at the Burdock-Fredlock Funeral Home, P.A., 21 N 2nd St., Oakland on Thursday, December 19th from 10 AM to 12 Noon at which time a funeral service will be held. Interment will be in the Moreland Cemetery.
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From the Burdock-Fredlock Funeral Home
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