Leona K. Frederick, a retired New York State Department of Labor interviewer who was a descendant of Harriet Tubman, died Jan. 5 of pulmonary hypertension at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 89.
Leona Keene was born and raised at 830 N. Bond St. She was a 1938 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School.
She later moved to Philadelphia and then Brooklyn, N.Y., where she earned a bachelor's degree from the City University of New York.
Mrs. Frederick worked for the City of New York and later was a hospital dietitian before taking a job in 1977 as an employment security clerk for the New York State Department of Labor. She was later promoted to an employment interviewer.
After retiring in 1985, she moved to Hamilton and married Charles Sean Frederick, a Baltimore businessman and a Douglass classmate. He died in 1995.
Mrs. Frederick was a descendant of Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery in Dorchester County and ran away to Philadelphia and gained her freedom. Ms. Tubman returned to Maryland, where she was one of the most successful "conductors" on the Underground Railroad, helping other slaves escape to freedom.
"She was very proud of her paternal relationship to Harriet Tubman," said a cousin, Alan F. Jones of Hamilton. "She always attended the annual Harriet Tubman reunion in Dorchester County and we held the first one in 2004 at Harriet's home in Auburn, N.Y."
Ms. Tubman moved to Auburn in 1857, where she lived until her death in 1913, and is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery there.
Mrs. Frederick was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Baltimore Urban League and the National Council of Negro Women. She was also a member of Woman Power Inc. and the Frederick Douglass High School Alumni Association.
She was an accomplished at needlepoint and enjoyed cooking and entertaining family and friends.
"Leona was a woman of dignity and class. She walked as a royal queen," Mr. Jones said.
"She loved sending cards, writing letters and talking with family and friends. She never forgot a birthday, and made the best homemade ginger beer from scratch," he said.
For the past three years, Mrs. Frederick lived at the Augsburg Lutheran Home and Village in Lochearn.
She was a longtime active member of Calvary Lutheran Church, where services were held Friday.
Mrs. Frederick is survived by numerous other cousins.