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Elisabeth Hague
To welcome her students to a new school year, Elisabeth Hague would dress up as Wonder Woman.
Red cape and all, she helped children file into her second-grade classroom at Southampton Elementary School, getting them excited about what was to come the next 10 months.
But she was Wonder Woman to more than just her students.
This week, the Southampton School District community is remembering Ms. Hague, who died at her home in Hampton Bays on Monday, surrounded by family, due to complications from melanoma. She was 64.
Ms. Hague worked in the district for 39 years, starting her career at the intermediate school and also working as a pre-K teacher in the district before moving to the elementary school on Hampton Road.
“She was so dedicated, even after 39 years,” said her daughter, Katherine. “She was always so excited for every day.”
Ms. Hague was known for a lot of things, but being lazy was not one of them. Colleagues said she often worked around the clock, always brainstorming and brewing up ideas to make learning fun for children.
She made work fun for her fellow teachers and staff members, too, by coming up with fun Halloween costumes for them to wear.
“Liz was a dynamic personality,” said Sam Post, a pre-K teacher. “She always had a good sense of humor.”
“She had a charisma with the kids,” said Southampton Elementary School Principal Dr. Bertha “Cookie” Richard. “She set the bar very high for other teachers.”
“She just went the extra mile,” added Ann Chilicki, also a pre-K teacher. “Passion. She had passion.”
A passion for teaching, and a passion for life. Ms. Hague was also known for following a robust bucket list, and some of the items she was able to cross off included traveling the world and holding a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Her travels included Sri Lanka, Thailand, Africa, Australia and New Zealand during summers off from school, when, of course, she worked with children.
She also had quirky parts to her personality, such as not ever owning a cellphone, playing pranks on her friends and family, and writing out satirical Christmas cards.
“They were more satire and very funny, and people always looked forward to reading them every year,” said one of her sons, Jack. “She was such a good writer.”
Katherine Hague said what she admired about her mother most was that she wanted nothing but the best for her six children, even if that meant them all moving to different parts of the country and not being close to her.
“She once wrote in a letter to someone that she gave her children wings to fly and not chains to bind them to her,” she said. “She didn’t care about us being 500 miles away. She just wanted us to be happy.”
Others who knew and worked with Ms. Hague all echoed her colleagues and children.
“Her reach is so huge,” said Donna Denon, a former colleague at the Southampton School district’s pre-K. “Not just at school, but in life.”
Ms. Hague was survived by her husband of 36 years, William; six children: William of New Hampshire, Jack of New York City, Katherine of Ohio, Henry of Tennessee, Lillian of Hawaii and Celia of Niagara Falls; two sisters, Maureen and Ellen of Garden City; and many nieces and nephews.
Services for Ms. Hague will be held Thursday, October 8, from 3 to 8 p.m. at the R.J. O’Shea Funeral Home on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays. The funeral will take place Friday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Rosalie’s Catholic Church, also on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays.
Donations may be made in Ms. Hague’s memory to the Joseph J. Theinert Memorial Fund at P.O. Box 1650, Mattituck, NY 11952, or online at josephjtheinertmemorialfund.org.
Alyssa Melillo on Oct 6, 2015