Grace Ann Starkey, 81, of Washington, DC – formerly of Monsey, NY – passed away on April 11, 2022. Grace Ann is survived by her daughter Alexis Starkey, her son-in-law Scott Nova, her granddaughter Starla Nova (age 4), her sister Antoinette Barbarino, her brother Steven Koklas, and her foster sister and brothers, Margaret Cruz, Sean Monahan, and Kevin Monahan, as well as nieces, nephews, and many, many friends, from places near and far. She was predeceased by her sister Phyllis Koklas, her foster sister Patricia Morris, her mother Rose Dagg and father Anthony Koklas, and her foster mother and father, Sally and John Monahan. Grace Ann lost her beloved husband, Elmer Starkey, in 1989. She remained in the house they shared in Monsey until 2019, when she moved to Washington to live with her daughter and son-in-law, so that she could spend as much time as possibole with her beloved granddaughter.
Grace Ann was born in 1941 in New York City and spent most of her youth at St. Dominic’s Orphanage in Blauvelt, New York. She attended high school in Goshen, New York and studied at the University at Buffalo. Grace Ann worked as a bookkeeper for both for-profit and non-profit entities, including the leading natural body care firm, Weleda. That work led her to become an active member of the anthroposophic Threefold Community, sending her daughter to Green Meadow Waldorf School and later working and living at the Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Foundation. She also served as a letter carrier in Monsey, the job where she met her husband, who later became Monsey’s Assistant Postmaster. Grace Ann worked full-time into her 70s and then devoted the remainder of her life to family and friends, including her companion, the late sea captain Jack O’Connor.
Through her kindness, generosity, and abiding love of people, Grace Ann touched the lives of many. Over the years, she built an extraordinary network of friends, from every walk of life, including Noriko Watanabe and Fraxen Ait Belkacem, students from overseas who stayed in her home and who Grace Ann thought of as her children. She will be deeply missed and fondly remembered.
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