By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
SEMINOLE — Connie Healey stood in front of her students, fresh from the tumult of the hallways on their first-ever day of school, and taught them that there is order in the world.
There was a time and a purpose to everything for Mrs. Healey, a career teacher who usually taught first grade. In the fall, she covered the walls with yellow paper and introduced the idea of reading by writing each student's name in big letters.
The paper changed with the seasons, blue for winter and green for spring.
She guided her students from one structured activity to the next, more often than not with a smile on her face. She had few discipline problems over a 24-year career, her family said.
"She always tried to lighten things up," said her sister, Ruth Gorlin. "She had a beautiful smile."
After her family moved to Seminole from Gainesville in the late 1950s, young Connie attended local schools. She enjoyed playing flute in the Seminole High School Warhawk marching band, where her father, Scott Rose, was principal.
"She had a hard time getting dates because her dad was principal," said Gorlin, 47.
Mrs. Healey also played in the University of Florida band and was president of her Phi Mu sorority. She met John Healey, a graduate metallurgy student and her future husband, while decorating a float.
In 1975, she started teaching at Azalea Elementary School. She would later teach at Bauder, Fuguitt, Walsingham and Southern Oaks elementary schools, spending a total of nine years at Walsingham. Her father was Pinellas County's superintendent of schools from 1981 to 1990.
But Mrs. Healey had never had any trouble cutting her own path, decorating her classrooms with supplies she bought herself. She was attentive and also stocked a cupboard with granola bars and cereal for students who didn't have enough to eat.
She retired in 1999 and later worked at the Creation Station, a scrapbook store.
Her spirits stayed high despite some tough breaks. A few months after her mother suffered a fatal heart attack in 2007, doctors diagnosed Mrs. Healey with peritoneal cancer, which affects the abdomen.
Then in 2008, John Healey died at 58, of a blood disorder.
"She never, ever complained," her sister said.
The priest who delivered her eulogy, the Rev. Patrick Rebel of St. Matthew Catholic Church, visited her as cancer slowly took over.
"She was in pain, but she didn't want you to think that she was," the Rev. Rebel said.
Mrs. Healey died Aug. 19. She was 57.
"She was very spiritual, she had the presence of God in her life," her priest said. "That's why I think she died a peaceful death."
Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.