Ruth Marie Harkins

Ruth Marie Harkins, an Amagansett native who had been living in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., since retiring from the United States Postal Service, died on Feb. 21 at Joanne’s House at Hope Hospice in Bonita Springs, Fla. She was 90 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mrs. Harkins met her husband-to-be, Harold J. Harkins, then a New York State trooper, at the Montauk Post Office, where she worked and her father was postmaster. She and Mr. Harkins, who survives, married in August 1955. They lived and brought up four children in Brewster, N.Y., Okemos, Mich., and Columbus, Ohio. 

Her children, all of whom survive, said their father was “the true love of her life” and that their parents enjoyed their retirement in Fort Myers Beach, in particular the beach and family vacations. Their mother loved holidays and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, they said, and was enthusiastic about lighthouses, seagulls, and a certain way of wearing custom T-shirts and suspenders. As a more than 40-year post office employee, she honored the American flag, they said. She was active in the Catholic Church, having been a member of St. Therese of Lisieux in Montauk. After retirement, she and her husband often brought their children to Montauk to visit her parents.

Ruth Marie Harkins was born on Sept. 1, 1927, in Amagansett, one of seven children of Theodore and Beatrice Santacroce Cook of Montauk. She graduated from East Hampton High School and went to work for the Postal Service in 1943, retiring in 1991. 

Her children are Edward Harkins of Santiago, Chile, Theodore Harkins of Los Angeles, Lori Whitney of San Francisco, and Lisa Fell of Newport, Ky. Her younger brother, John Cook of Fort Worth, Tex., is the only one of the seven siblings who survives. 

In addition to Mr. Cook and her husband and children, dozens of nieces and nephews and six grandchildren survive.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on March 16 at 11 a.m. at the Church of the Ascension in Fort Myers Beach, followed by the burial of Mrs. Harkins’s ashes in the church’s memorial garden. Donations have been suggested for Church of the Ascension, 6025 Estero Boulevard, Fort Myers Beach, Fla. 33931, or Hope Hospice, 27200 Imperial Parkway, Bonita Springs, Fla. 34135