By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Sharon Dawley, a veteran third-grade teacher beloved for her generosity and dedication, died suddenly Friday, sending shock waves through the tiny elementary school she called home for 34 years.

“No one was prepared for it,” said third-grade teacher Darlene Letourneau. “She was just always here.”

Dawley, 56, rarely missed a day at the 260-student Martel Elementary School. She called in sick Thursday and Friday with flulike symptoms. She died at home Friday of an undetermined cause.

Principal Stephen Whitfield learned about her death that evening and called the school staff members. He notified Dawley’s students and their families Sunday. Teachers told the remaining students Monday morning. The school officially honored Dawley with a moment of silence, but many students and staff members spent the entire day in mourning.

“We’re all like a volcano. Every once in a while we all burst into tears,” said Letourneau, who taught with Dawley for 24 years. Monday, she moved Dawley’s students into her classroom.

Dawley began her teaching career at Martel in 1970. A third-grade teacher most of those years, she became known for her soft voice and high expectations. She was determined to get through to even the most challenging students and often worked through breaks and into the evening to help her kids.

“She really did, it’s going to sound like a cliche, but she really did care about the kids first,” said Whitfield.

Dawley was a creative teacher with a flair for poetry and riddles. Former students liked to remember the spelling games and math rhymes she invented to help them learn.

“When I didn’t know everything, she put it in a way that I knew,” said 10-year-old Ravon Palmer, who was in Dawley’s class last year.

That dedication eventually rubbed off on Dawley’s daughter, Erin. She became a teacher in northern Maine.

“The kids always adored her. I wanted that,” she said.

Over the years, Dawley found a school routine that worked and she stuck with it. March meant an all-out St. Patrick’s Day celebration. April meant an Easter-egg hunt, with hand-written riddles for clues.

In June, she asked her students to write letters to second-graders so the new students would know what to expect from her.

Monday morning, Letourneau asked Dawley’s students to fulfill that tradition a little early. Their letters will be given to Dawley’s family.

“One said, You would’ve had a wonderful teacher. I’m sorry you won’t have her,'” Letourneau said.

Dawley’s funeral will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at St. Joseph’s Church in Lewiston. The day also happens to mark her favorite holiday: St. Patrick’s Day.

Martel’s 50 staff members plan to board a school bus and attend the service. They’ve celebrated their triumphs and mourned their losses together for decades.

This time, they will miss the one person who was always there with them.

“She was our matriarch,” Whitfield said. “That’s what we called her.”

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