Frances Tiernan, 93, of Garden City, dies

Long after many of Frances E. Tiernan's pupils had left her Garden City school classroom, she would get telephone calls from them seeking advice.

"She had a strong relationship with a lot of her students," her daughter, Audrey Tiernan, said. "My mother was more than a teacher. She was an educator."

Tiernan, 93, who taught at the Homestead Elementary School from 1967 until her retirement in 1983, died Tuesday at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola from complications of a bacterial infection, her family said.

Born in Queens, Tiernan - then Frances Barth - graduated from Jamaica High School in 1936 and from Adelphi University, magna cum laude, in 1940. She obtained a master's degree in education there 30 years later.

Tiernan's husband, Harold Francis Tiernan, was a Merchant Marine officer who died of an illness in Vietnam during the war there, forcing her to start working full time to support her family.

Tiernan began teaching first- and second-graders at the Homestead Elementary School in Garden City, and stayed there throughout her teaching career, but she never lost track of her former students.

She kept a list of every student she had, and when each finally graduated from high school, they received a card from her.

SEE PHOTOSNotable deaths: Long Islanders we recently lost

"Some of her students would still come to visit on Christmas," her daughter said. "On her 80th birthday, she had like 100 cards from former students."

When Tiernan learned seven years ago that a former student, Jennifer Gisolfi, was looking for a home in Garden City for her young family, Tiernan contacted her and set into motion events that ended with Gisolfi as her next-door neighbor.

at Fairchild Sons Funeral Home, Garden City, and 10 a.m. Friday at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City. Burial will be in Flushing Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be sent to the Clark Botanic Gardens and the Seamen's Church Institute of New York.