Harriet Schlegel

Harriet Strocchia died suddenly on May 8. Harriet graduated from Massapequa's only school in 1940 and Amityville High School in 1944. While living with her parents at 517 Broadway during her school years, she was popular with her schoolmates. She was the Drum Majorette for the Massapequa American Legion Post #1066 Band and enjoyed dancing at local get-togethers in the Firehouse and the American Legion Hall.

Later she began to teach dancing. She went on to teach and own Arthur Murray Studios in Hempstead and Great Neck and during the early 1960s she opened her Starr Dance Studio in Huntington. In the Dec. 26, 1997 Newsday Part Two Weekend, she was featured with a full front-page photo of her dancing, followed with two pages written by staff writer Robert L. Fouch highlighting her rhythmic career. She was also featured on NEWS 12 Long Island several times. Fouch wrote that she not only was a great dance teacher, she was a good businesswoman - lessons at the Starr Studio were quite pricy; however, she gave back - she hosted dance parties for all of her students regularly. She recently moved into her condo in the Greens of Melville to be closer to her studio. Harriet raised three daughters as a single parent. She loved to travel. Shopping and wearing stylish clothes, dancing and being with friends, along with her attending her grandchildren's school activities, made her happy and kept her busy. She played her mother's piano and sang to her children at bedtime. Relaxing by her pool was her quiet time. Harriet enjoyed visiting her sister, Karen, in South Carolina and was preparing to go to a niece's wedding on June 7 in Greenville, SC.

Harriet's father, Chris Schegel, who was a local plumbing contractor and Massapequa Fireman, died when he was hit by a train driving across the LIRR tracks at Broadway a few blocks from his home during a snowy morning in 1949. Beloved mother of the Hon. Linda Jamieson, Dr. Janine Jamieson Mayer (Mitchell) and Lauren L. Jamieson and fiancée Victor Pickney and dear sister Karen Parr (AL) and the late Jan Slagel Serra (Mario), cherished grandmother of Heather, Jamieson, Ross and Jake. A service was held at the Charles G. Funeral Home in Seaford.

She will be missed by her daughters, Lauren, Janine, Linda and her stepson, Frank Strocchia.