Rosetta Harris

Rosetta Mombo Harris was born in Gainesville, Alabama on February 10, 1921, and was the second of three children of Jack and Georgia Long. In her early years, Rosetta was raised by her grandparents, Sandy and Betty Long, and lived with them on their family farm in Suffolk County, Alabama. In her teenage years, after the passing of her grandmother, Rosetta lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with her Aunt Ella Taylor, a restaurant and boarding house owner. While living with her aunt, Rosetta worked as a mothers helper in her aunts boarding home and attended Central High and Tuscaloosa Industrial High School, where she met her former husband, Hugo Harris.
After graduating from Tuscaloosa Industrial High School, Rosetta entered the U.S. government sponsored Defense Workers program in Snow Hill, Alabama where she was taught radio technology and the production skills necessary to work in the defense manufacturing industry. Rosetta was part of the World War II great migration that called upon women to do their part and leave their traditional roles and enter the defense industry workforce in order to release men for front line military service in Europe and the Pacific. After graduating from the program in 1943, Rosetta was sent to work in the defense manufacturing industry in Connecticut and worked as an assembler for military radios in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During this time, she mastered the reading and sending of messages using Morse code, and was offered the opportunity to transfer to Tuskegee, Alabama, which she declined. On June 20, 1944, she married her high school sweetheart, Hugo Harris, at a chapel at the Army Service Forces Depot in Pennsylvania.
At the end of World War II and with the return of Hugo from serving in the Army overseas, Rosetta left General Electric and spent the majority of her working career at Fairfield State Hospital in Newtown, Connecticut where she was a supervisor for patient care aides. Throughout her working career, she was a diligent advocate for her childrens educational and spiritual development, supplementing their public school education with trips to the public library and other educational and spiritual activities.
Rosetta devoted a major portion of her life assisting her children in the raising of her eight grandchildren, and was also a writer and evangelist. As a writer, she published and provided to family and friends inspirational messages, quotes, and words to live by. She kept a daily log of friends and family that she would send cards, letters and encouraging words to with approximately 15 to 20 notes per week, not based upon who sent a reply to her. Rosetta was a dedicated Christian and in her early years in Bridgeport was an active member of Little Mount Zion Holiness Church. She was a strong supporter, seamstress and supervisor of the Youth and Young Adult Choir under the direction of the late (Bishop) Kenneth Moales, Sr. Throughout her life, Rosetta actively supported televised ministries and other churches in the greater Bridgeport, Connecticut area.
Although in her early life she experienced many hardships, in her later years she enjoyed many of the things she had only dreamed of as a child. One of these was her first trip to Hawaii and many other trips to visit her children that allowed her to travel across the country.
On Tuesday, August 2, 2016, at the age of 95, Rosetta passed away quietly at her residence in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She was blessed to have her caring daughter Jeanette by her side upon death. Rosetta is survived by her children, Gwendolyn Randall (James), Patrick, Theodore (Lynda), Jeanette and Michael (Wendy); grandchildren Alicia Choinski (Michael), Adam Arrington (Kenna), Bryan Harris, Lonnell Lawson Jr. (Catherine), Lynnette Lawson, Imani Harris, Lauren and Victoria Harris; great grandchildren Hailey and Amelia Choinski, Jake, Jordan, Samantha, Peyton, and Dylan Arrington/Taylor; Kayla, Tavis (TJ), Nasya, and Jesiah Lawson; niece Juanita Henley (Craig), nephew Martin Long and a host of family and friends.Rosetta Mombo Harris, age 95, of Bridgeport, Connecticut passed away on August 2, 2016. Born in Gainesville, Alabama, she was the second of three children of the late Jack and Georgia Long. She is survived by her five children: Gwendolyn Randall (James), Patrick Harris, Theodore Harris (Lynda), Jeanette Harris and Michael Parker Harris (Wendy). Rosetta will be dearly missed by her grandchildren, great grandchildren, family and friends.
A Celebration of Life service will be held on Friday, August 26, 2016, with guests being received at 1:30 pm and service at 2 pm at Salem Lutheran Church, 3160 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604.