Students, family, friends mourn teacher's passing

Mourners congregate in the parking of the Emmanuel Advent Christian Church in Rochester on Tuesday after attending Lorraine Perry's funeral. (Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - On Tuesday, family, friends and an entire school community turned out to grieve and remember a dedicated educator who passed away in her prime last Wednesday.

Among the mourners were McClelland School third-graders, who went to school a week ago today only to find they’d lost their teacher forever.

Lorraine Perry

Lorraine Marie Perry, whose funeral was held yesterday at Rochester’s Emmanuel Advent Christian Church, died unexpectedly at the age of 45, at Portsmouth Regional Hospital early Wednesday morning.

Perry had taught fifth and second grades at McClelland before settling into third-grade, which she taught for several years up until she died. “It was totally unexpected, she worked till 5 p.m. that (Tuesday, Sept. 10) afternoon,” said Mary Jo Snyder, a second-grade teacher at the school

Carrie Feyler, who was a fourth-grade teacher at McClelland when Perry first arrived as a long-term sub eight years ago, said she was a dedicated educator who could make anybody laugh and everybody listen.

“She had a dry sense of humor,” Feyler said as she stood amid hundreds of mourners young and old outside the Eastern Avenue church. “She’d be quiet, just listening to a conversation, than come out with that one-liner that would make everybody laugh.”

The Rochester School Department closed the McClelland School on Tuesday, so that students and staff could attend Perry’s funeral.

“We have an amazing family at McClelland,” Snyder said surveying the huge crowd in the church parking lot. “And the School Department has been wonderful.”

Mourners congregate in the parking of the Emmanuel Advent Christian Church in Rochester on Tuesday after attending Lorraine Perry's funeral.

Some of Perry’s students from third grade were in attendance as well as former students who now attend Spaulding High School along with Perry’s son and daughter.

Snyder said she wasn’t surprised by the amount of older students who attended the funeral.

“She was a kind and caring teacher, always willing to go the extra mile, not just for her students, but for all students,” Snyder said.

In her obituary printed in The Lebanon Voice on Tuesday, a quote reads, "Lorraine's generosity and kind heart were an inspiration to her family, her students and her community. She lived her life with integrity and compassion.”

That integrity and compassion impacted not only a grade and a school, but a school district and an entire city.