John Bligh
- Retired Teacher
Linda Green became a teacher at PS 154 in Harlem because “she wasn’t feeling fulfilled” working as a 911 operator with the NYPD, according to a friend. She taught 2nd and 3rd grades at the school for 17 years, the last several years while battling cancer, until the disease forced her to retire in 2018.
Linda died of cancer on Jan. 21, 2022, at age 59.
Her illness never affected Linda’s devotion to her students or the spirituality she brought to dealings with everyone she encountered, said Beverly Dais and Zina Burton-Myrick, her friends and colleagues. “She gave her all to the school community in every way she could on a daily basis,” said Burton-Myrick, the UFT representative for District 5 in Manhattan.
“Her faith really carried her,” Burton-Myrick said. “She had a couple of bouts with cancer and she said, ‘This is not going to beat me.’ She went into remission but got it again.”
Dais, who was a teacher and a prior chapter leader at the school, said Linda “was fighting a long time, a good 10 years.”
Burton-Myrick and Linda had been friends since they were classmates at Norman Thomas HS in Manhattan in the late 1970s.
After 21 years, Linda returned to school to get her degree in education and become a teacher. “She always felt a passion for kids,” Burton-Myrick said. “She wanted to make a difference in their lives.”
Linda chose to teach 2nd- and 3rd-graders, Burton-Myrick said, because she considered it “a good middle ground. They were old enough that she didn’t have to wipe their noses or tie their shoes, and she could talk to them before they reached the age at which students start being more difficult.”
Linda was notable for her warmth but knew how to keep students in line, both women said. “She was no pushover,” Burton-Myrick said. “She was very firm and had great classroom management. She would say, ‘I’m not going to raise my voice,'” and that was enough to quiet students.
“She was strong, but she cared, and she was fair. The kids loved her; always wanted to be around her,” Dais said. So did her colleagues, both women agreed.
Linda served as a deaconess at Antioch Baptist Church in Harlem. “She gave her life to the Lord,” Burton-Myrick said.
Once retired, while wrestling with her illness, Linda reflected on her time at PS 154, Dais recalled, and said it was the best thing she ever could have done. “She said it was rewarding, especially when the kids have their ‘aha! moment,'” said Dais. “That is the best thing any teacher can see: I finally reached this child.”
What Dais remembered most about Linda was that even while she was ill, she remained a devoted friend. “As sick as she was, when I was in the hospital, she always made it her business to visit me,” Dais said. “That was my sister at work, that was my sister in Christ, that was my sister, period.”
Linda is survived by her husband, Michael; three daughters, Brittney, Dominique and Joi; and her grandson, Hudsyn Blue, whom Burton-Myrick called “the apple of her eye.”
