Virginia (Swift) Hart

WEST CORNWALL — Virginia (Swift) Hart, 84, passed away peacefully on Aug. 28, 2007, in Torrington of natural causes.

She was the widow of Oliver Hart, who died in 1985. They met at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and were married in 1947.

Mrs. Hart was born in New Haven, on June 13, 1923, to R. Marguerite (Gaylord) and Gordon  Swift and grew up in Watertown, where her father was the superintendent of the Watertown School District.

She graduated from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1944 and received her master’s degree in nutrition at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. She then worked for a short time as a dietitian at the University Hospital in Cleveland and at New Haven Hospital.

Mrs. Hart dedicated her life to her family. She lived in West Cornwall until 1985 when she began to spend her winters in Winter Park, Fla., and her summers with her daughter, Cindy, in Torrington. Over the last few years, she made her home in Torrington with Cindy, Charley and Tory Harbach.

She worked at Bierce’s General Store in West Cornwall and at the Grand Union in Sharon after her children were grown. She enjoyed rug hooking, sewing and visiting her children, friends and relatives around the country.

She is survived by her four children and five grandchildren: Richard and his wife, Wendy, and their daughters Abigail and Elizabeth of Amherst, N.H., Judy Andrews and her sons, Jonathan and Nicholas of Billings, Mont., Cindy Harbach, her husband Charley and their daughter Tory of Torrington; and Alan Hart and Janeil Ivie of Salt Lake City, Utah. She is also survived by her brother, John Swift and his wife, Francis, of Amherst, Va., and their children, Sandra Wolfe and Connie Knotts.

She was predeceased by her sister, Peggy Swift, of San Francisco, Calif.

Memorial services will be at the convenience of the family, in the spring of 2008.

Her family is proud of the obstacles Mrs. Hart overcame as she was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 16 and lived with the disease for 68 years.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to either the American Diabetes Association, PO Box 11454, Alexandria, VA 22312, or online at diabetes.org/secure/donation/Donate.do?action=Memory; or to the Visiting Nurses Association of
Connecticut, Hospice Program, 62 Commercial Blvd., Torrington, CT 06790.

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