Katherine Markarian Askinazi Oral History

Katherine Markarian Askinazi speaks with interviewer Fran Kipnis about her childhood and young adulthood in Queens, specifically Sunnyside and Hollis Hills, from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. Katherine details her parents' separate journeys leaving the Soviet Union, immigrating to the United States after World War II, and finding work in New York before meeting each other and starting a family in Sunnyside. After moving to Hollis Hills, Katherine attended P.S. 188, Junior High School 172, and Martin Van Buren High School. She recalls her recreational activities in Alley Pond Park and Cunningham Park, her trips to Manhattan to attend a Russian language school on Saturdays, and her enjoyment of gym and auto shop classes in high school. Katherine, who began attending St. John's University at the age of 16, reflects on her ensuing academic and career path, earning a bachelor's degree in biology plus a master's degree in microbial genetics and becoming a lab technician; she has worked for over 40 years at Stony Brook University, serving as a clinical research coordinator at the time of this interview. Katherine discusses moving from Queens to Suffolk County in the mid-1980s, her trips back to Queens to visit her parents until their deaths in 2019, and her visits to Queens since then.