Deborah Hastings

Deborah Hastings (Hastings-Black) died of cancer on July 17, 2024. She is survived by her children Michael, Julia, and Andrew, their father Sam Black, her sister Margot, and her grandchildren, Carla, Levon, and Sebastian. Deb was born on May 23, 1946 in Boston to an American father and French mother just after their service in World War II. Deb was the eldest of three, and the family lived in England, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland following their father’s career with Saudi Aramco and Pan Am. She returned to the United States for college, studying political science at Connecticut College. Deb came to Washington in 1969 to work on Capitol Hill for the House Select Committee on Crime. During the Nixon administration, she worked in the White House on the Special Action Office on Drug Abuse Prevention. Later in her career, she worked at DC Superior Court as a mediator for child custody and divorce cases.

She was known for her wonderful French cooking, sharp opinions about politics, singing and dancing, and creating outstanding costumes for Halloween, the Christmas Revels and SMTW. Deb was a devoted friend, and may hold the record for most consecutive weeks at Politics and Prose with her coffee clutch, “the Mothers Group”. Deb loved to travel, to the beach in Lewes, Delaware, to coastal Maine, the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, South Africa, India, Colombia and familiar spots in Europe. A memorial will be held on October 27th at the Village of Friendship Heights Community Center at 4pm.