Grace Ehmann, former teacher, dies at 86

Grace Ehmann of St. James, a longtime parochial school teacher and the mother of Smithtown Superintendent Edward Ehmann, died Wednesday at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson. She was 86.

Ehmann, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, taught for 30 years at Saints Philip and James Catholic School in St. James. She retired in 1995 at age 70.

Edward Ehmann said his mother's goal was to teach each of her students to read by the end of first grade.

"She was basically born to teach," he said. "She worked tirelessly to make sure she reached each and every child."

Born in the Bronx, Grace Cecilia Lucie was voted "most vivacious" at Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria Heights, Queens, her family said. In high school, she met Richard Ehmann, who would fight in the Pacific during World War II. They married in 1946.

The couple moved to St. James from Far Rockaway in 1958 and had six children. A son, Michael, died in infancy.

While her husband worked his way up to vice president for operations and management for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Grace Ehmann attended Suffolk County Community College at night and graduated with an associate degree in 1965.

Even before she was hired to teach first grade at Saints Philip and James, she helped her children with their homework every night, Edward Ehmann said.

"I think she always had a desire to help others," he said. "All of her kids would say that she taught us to deal with the ups and downs of life and to stay positive, which she did."

Richard Ehmann died in 1975 at age 50.

Edward Ehmann said he meets parents in Smithtown who were students of his mother. They remember her compassion, he said.

"I don't think everyone remembers their first grade teachers once they reach their 40s, but these people do," he said.

In addition to her son Edward, Ehmann is survived by two other sons, Richard of Washington, D.C., and Patrick of East Moriches; two daughters, Mary McGinn of Manhattan and Barbara Arcilla of Bergenfield, N.J.; a sister, Mary Lefebvre of Amherst, N.H.; a brother, Edwin of Dix Hills; and eight grandchildren.

Visiting will be 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at St. James Funeral Home. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Monday at Saints Philip and James Roman Catholic Church, St. James. Burial will be at St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale.