Monique Harrison, long time French teacher  

Monique W. Harrison, 96, of Spartanburg, passed away on November 22, 2016 at her home on Twin Drive.

The memorial service to celebrate her life will be held on Saturday, December 10, at 2 PM, at Saint Christopher’s Episcopal Church,400 Dupree Drive, Spartanburg

Monique had a seven-decade career as a teacher of the French language and culture, most of it in Spartanburg.

Born February 25, 1920 in Nancy, France, daughter of Henry Whelpton, a French Protestant pastor of British parentage, and Magdaleine Meyer Whelpton, a hospital nurse.  As a result of meeting Americans while staying with family at the American University of Beirut, Monique sought a scholarship to attend college in the US. After finishing high school in Paris, she came to this country in Fall 1939, and entered Furman University as a junior, receiving a B.A. in political science in 1941. Monique immediately enrolled in graduate school at Duke University where she began her career of teaching French.  She married Norwood Harrison in December 1941, shortly after the US declared war on Nazi Germany.  She became an American citizen in early 1943.They moved to Spartanburg in 1945.  Mrs. Harrison was a key person in founding the first elementary school French program in Spartanburg County schools in the mid-1950s at Pine Street School.

In 1957 the Harrison family moved to Forest Hills, in New York City.  She began teaching at a private school on Long Island, where students voted her the winner of a NY metropolitan area award for exceptional teaching.  In 1972, Monique and Norwood moved back to Spartanburg for the rest of their lives.  Monique resumed teaching French at Converse College and USC-Spartanburg. From the mid-1970s until 1985, she was the lead French instructor at the Spartanburg Day School, which she found to be a particularly rewarding experience.  In that period, Monique became very active in the Alliance Francaise of the Piedmont, an organization formed to foster knowledge and appreciation of French culture in the Upstate.  After retiring, Monique tutored individual students, and also volunteered at the Shepherd’s Center of Spartanburg to teach conversational French and to discuss France.  Although legally blind from 1993 onward due to macular degeneration, Monique was active through her final decades in staying in touch with French speakers in the area, keeping up with world and national affairs via radio, and “reading” hundreds of audio books.

She was widowed in 2012.  She is survived by her children Edward and Madeleine Harrison, grand-daughter Teo Monique Pellegrino, great-grand-children Indiana and Henry, and French nieces Catherine and Helene Jourdan.

The family is very grateful to Chuck Frank of Spartanburg for the extraordinary service he gave Monique and Norwood over a nine year period.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be given in memory of  Monique W. Harrison to:

The American Macular Degeneration Foundation,  www.macular.com, or 1.888.622.8527.

 Service Information