Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Calls outside of office hours? No worries! Our team will respond within 10–15 minutes.
August 14, 2020
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 from 4-8 PM. A Funeral Mass will be offered at 11 AM on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, at St. Mary’s RC Church, Pompton Lakes. She will be laid to rest with her husband, Jim, at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, NJ.
Genevieve V. Harraka, age 99 of Riverdale, died peacefully on Friday, August 14, 2020.
Genevieve grew up in Harrison, NJ and attended Harrison High School. She left school in the eleventh grade and began working full-time to help support her family. Her first job was at the Thermwell Company in Newark where she earned 35 cents per hour! She felt like a millionaire when they boosted her pay to 50 cents per hour! Later she worked at Liggetts Drugs in Montclair, then at Stanton’s Drugs in Little Falls where she served malted milk shakes to Yogi Berra on occasion. After marrying her husband, Jim, she worked at Lee’s Luncheonette in Cedar Grove until they closed their doors. Together, she and Jim opened “C Jay’s Luncheonette” on First Ave. in Denville and they ran that until retiring in 1987. She also enjoyed working in the cafeteria at DePaul High School from 1973 to 1983, where Fr. O’Rourke frequently scolded her for feeding the dairy cows grazing nearby.
Genevieve met her husband Jim at his deli; Lee’s luncheonette, in Cedar Grove. She was having lunch there and he sat down at her table asked her out on a date. They went to dinner in Clifton and as fate would have it, they hit it off! They were married on October 5, 1958 at St. Ann’s Church on Mill Street in Paterson, followed by a honeymoon to Niagara Falls. They enjoyed a very loving and loyal marriage of fifty-five years, raising three daughters, before Jim passed away in 2001.
Genevieve is survived by two daughters; Carolee Mearon and her husband Gene of Wayne, and Jeannie Malone of Hedgesville, WV, six grandchildren; Michael and Jeffrey Luberto, Amy Mehl, Leah and Michael Malone, and Colleen Mearon, five great-grandchildren; Julia and Ryan Luberto, Michael Luberto, Kailee and Kyle Mehl, and one sister; Virginia McCue of Fairfield, NJ. She was predeceased by her daughter Janet Luberto in 2016, and by her beloved husband Jim in 2001.
In lieu of flowers, donations would be greatly appreciated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memorial Processing, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959, www.stjude.org.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 from 4-8 PM. A Funeral Mass will be offered at 11 AM on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, at St. Mary’s RC Church, Pompton Lakes. She will be laid to rest with her husband, Jim, at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, NJ.
Guestbook
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.