Obituary of Ella Brady

Ella (Crean) Brady LYNNFIELD Ella (Crean) Brady, 98, a teacher for 40 years of early grade school children, died unexpectedly Saturday evening at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center Hospital in Burlington of complications from Pneumonia, following a brief illness after hip surgery in 2001. Longtime friend and fellow teacher Marion Wright of Peabody and Wakefield recalled their professional years together and remarked, We are going to miss her, having loved her so much. She was born in Salem, the daughter of the late Cornelius and Elizabeth (Allen) Crean. She lived there in her youth and attended Salem schools. After graduating from Salem Normal School, Class of 1922, which changed its name to Salem Teacher’ s College and Salem State College, she embarked on her long career in education. Mrs. Brady, looking back upon her educational career, said often that her first few weeks in teaching had been tentative. I was never so unsure of myself, she said, as I was the day I started teaching. After the first day, I was ready to throw in the towel. It seemed not at all to be my calling. But tenacity, a lifelong trait, held sway and Mrs. Brady went on to perform decades of valued teaching service at the Thomas Carroll School in Peabody, and the Belmont School in Malden, among others. She was best known by students and colleagues for her early adoption of innovative teaching methods, which emphasized one-on-one training and phonetics, at that time a theoretical and untested approach that seemed to accelerate the attainment of literacy. Some first-grade students of Mrs. Brady were testing at fourth-and fifth-grade levels before the end of their first year of instruction. By the mid 1930’ s, she was an active participant in the training of other area teachers, who, at the behest of their Principals, would visit her classroom to watch a demonstration of her methods in action. By the time of her retirement in 1973, Mrs. Brady was honored for her service of more than 40 years in the teaching profession. She continued teaching part-time at Our Lady of the Assumption School in Lynnfield until 1977. Her husband of 50 years, James Brady, died ten years ago. She is survived by: a daughter, Nancy Cerniglia of Lynnfield; four grandchildren, Joseph of Somerville, Dawn, Carlyn and Jamie, each of Lynnfield; and one great-grandchild, Kyle of Lynnfield, and several nieces and nephews. She was also preceded in death by her sisters and brother, Theresa Sullivan, Mary Crean, Elizabeth Holtz, and Cornelius Crean. Her funeral will be held on Tuesday at 9 AM from the Cahill-Brodeur facility at 20 Church St. of the Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home, Lynnfield, followed by a Funeral Mass at 10 AM in Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Lynnfield, to which relatives and friends are kindly invited. A visitation will be held today from 4 to 8 P.M. Burial will be in Willow Cemetery, Lynnfield. Please visit ccbfuneral.com for directions and guestbook.