Retired Harrison Teacher Turns 103

HARRISON - Mildred Lemos became a Harrison school teacher in 1933. During her 40 years at two different elementary schools in town she touched the lives of numerous past and present members of the Harrison community.

Lemos turned 103 on Wednesday and although she has trouble seeing, is completely deaf in one ear and needs a hearing aid to hear from the other, it is still easy to see the patience, intellect and sense of humor that made her a quality teacher for all those years.

"I was smart, but I'm dumb now," she said with a laugh. 

She was right about the first part. Lemos attended Oneonta State University before she started teaching and eventually took classes at New York University. This was during an era when not nearly as many people, especially women, even attended college.

Lemos is quick to admit that the years have worn away at her body. But she still reads the newspaper and spends afternoons working on her "word jumbles". She needs reading glasses and a magnifying glass just to see the words. 

She looks back at a life that encompasses several generations. Growing up in Hancock, New York, she was one of ten children. She remembers things being different back then.

"I went to one of those one-room schools out in the bushes," she said. "They had to go out somewhere and get the water in a pale from a farmer, it was terrible."

Although Lemos considered a career as a nurse she decided to follow her sister into the teaching field in the late 1920s. After that she moved to Long Island for a few years before taking a job in Harrison.

She taught fourth grade at Parsons Elementary School for 20 years before moving to Pleasant Ridge Elementary School for another 20. During those 40 years she was part of the education of two generations of many Harrison families.

Today she doesn't remember much about individual students, just that she never had a child she didn't like.

"There were no bad kids," Lemos said.

She taught Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini in second grade. Marraccini said that he remembers his second grade teacher from all those years ago and that she was a positive influence on his education.

Marraccini visited his teacher the afternoon before she turned 103. Oddly enough, the current police station was once the elementary school where Lemos taught. Marraccini recalled that his current office is the same room where Lemos taught him in second grade.

The Harrison Police now visit Lemos, along with seven other seniors, every day to check in and even chat for a few minutes.

After retirement Lemos decided to stay in Harrison. Although she considered other places, she said she just never wanted to leave. 

"Harrison is a nice place, I decided when I retired I would stay here instead of going upstate," she said. "It was nice up there too, but this was nicer."

Lemos lived with her husband before, she said, he committed suicide several years ago. She doesn't remember when it happened, but said that it was because he had a problem with alcohol.

Most of the people that were part of her immediate life are now gone as well. Lemos never had any children but full-time home aid Alice Chokwe said that Lemos spoke to her sister on the phone every night before she passed away last year at the age of 93.

"She talks about her family a lot, it seems like they were very close," said Chokwe.

Now Lemos relies on generous neighbors and her home aid to keep her company. One neighbor visits every day to chat and help out. Community Police Officer Tom Milone also makes a daily visit.

"They come every day, just to check on me and to talk about five or ten minutes and then they go to the next person I suppose. And it's something to look forward to," said Lemos. "I look forward to seeing them, just to see a person, and they're all nice. They should have more of that."

With a smile, Lemos even joked about the good looks of the officers who visit her. Even at 103, she still has a firm grasp on her sense of humor.

As she celebrates her birthday on Wednesday she said that she is thankful for all of the people in her neighborhood that help her out on a daily basis. For someone who spent so much time as a part this community, the thank you certainly goes both ways.