WASHINGTON — Philanthropist and artist Anna Hamparian Hovnanian died recently.
She was born February 24, 1929 in Hoboken NJ, the only child of Hambartsum Hamparian and Virginia Achemian. Her father had been a professor in Kharpert, Western Armenia, where he had lost his first wife and son, who were slaughtered by the Turks during the Armenian Genocide.
Hambartsum Hamparian escaped to France and served in the French Legionary. From France he immigrated to the United States. He met Virginia, who had immigrated from Aleppo (Haleb), Syria; they married, and had one child-Anna.
They soon after settled in Queens, New York, where Anna was raised. Her father worked long hours in a small factory, and while always affectionate towards Anna, carried with him always the sadness of his lost family. Anna carries a special memory of her father carrying her on his shoulder through the streets so she would get sleepy, and holding her up to see the new invention of the television, displayed in shop windows.
Anna, from a young age, leaned towards the arts, and would pass time sitting at their apartment window sketching what she saw below. She recalls her childhood as loving, but quiet and lonely, and she vowed to herself she would marry for true love and have a lively happy household filled with lots of children and laughter. This was to be her destiny.
Anna was a diligent student and while attending high school would take a subway to Manhattan, to work in the hat department of Macy’s, where she would model the hats. Her love of Manhattan began and would continue throughout her life. Her beauty and elegant style was clear at this point and despite her humble position, was always fashionably dressed, sewing her own clothes after studying the latest fashions from the best New York stores.