Harriet Young Cooper

Harriet Young Cooper, 89, of New York City and Princeton, died May 19, 2023, in Raleigh. She was born on January 17, 1934, at Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond to Hattie Wooten and James Wesley Cooper of Henderson, North Carolina, where Harriet grew up. She spent happy summers at Camp Merrie-Woode where, in 1949, she attained the rank of Captain, the highest position in the camp’s storied boating program. Harriet also spent many summers in Morehead and was happiest on the screened porch, sound side. She was graduated from Stuart Hall, Staunton, Virginia, in 1952, and Sweet Briar College in 1956. It was at Sweet Briar that Harriet developed her love of literature and the English language. She would later receive an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. Her dissertation, “D. H. Lawrence’s Italian Prose: Discovery of Home,” was published in 1993. Harriet taught at Lehman College and NYU and presented papers at conferences across the country as well as in Kyoto, Japan, and in England where she studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge. She also published work on Elizabeth Bishop, Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad and other writers and poets of the twentieth century. A longtime member of the Modern Language Association, she rarely missed an annual meeting, frequently participating as a presenter or panelist. She was also a member of the D.H. Lawrence Society and The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of North Carolina. Harriet moved to New York in 1957 after living in San Francisco briefly after college. She was an intellectual, a voracious reader, a prolific poet, and a critic of the arts. She was never without the Sunday New York Times and the New Yorker magazine. Harriet was predeceased by her sister Mary Ann Cooper Broughton of Raleigh as well as by her faithful friend Mattie Alston Macon of Henderson. She is survived by her niece Harriet Broughton Holliday and nephews, J. Melville Broughton III (Ginny) and James Wesley Cooper Broughton (Grace) as well as six great-nieces, a great-nephew and a great-great niece. Harriet is also survived by many Cooper and Wooten cousins. Millie Pou Genet was an especially devoted friend and cousin. Sara Cobb Shores, Anne Hudgins Sullivan, Mary Mitchell and Janie Clark remained dear friends. The family is grateful to Janet Njanja, Elizabeth Gitonga, Margaret Mungai, Rahab Gitonga and Veronica Kienyi for their devotion to Harriet as well as to the staff of Sunrise of Raleigh and Transitions LifeCare. A graveside service will take place at Elmwood Cemetery in Henderson on May 31, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. Memorials may be made to North Carolina State University for the James Wesley Cooper Endowed Scholarship, Campus Box 7701, Raleigh, NC 27695.