Deborah Ruth Huntington

Debbie was born in São Paulo, Brazil, where her parents had been posted by Citibank. She lived there for thirteen years. The family was transferred to France for two years, and then came to the U.S. They settled in Brewster, New York, where Debbie finished high school. Debbie graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1973, having spent three semesters studying abroad in Spain. She attended Brown University as a graduate student and instructor of Portuguese. While at Brown, Debbie met Chet Halka, whom she married in 1975. After sojourns in Worcester, Massachusetts and Middletown, Delaware, where she and Chet were Spanish teachers, Debbie returned to Lynchburg. She and Chet started a family, and taught Spanish for 32 years at her alma mater, retiring in 2018. Debbie is survived by her husband of fifty years and their two children, Suzanne and Pim Halka, and also by three brothers, James, John, and Peter Huntington. Debbie lives on in the hearts of those who loved her, and she will be sorely missed. A memorial service is being planned.