Laurette LaPrarie, teacher at Ridge Elementary School, dies at 56

Fourth-grade teacher Laurette LaPrarie was something like a child whisperer, taking on all students with a calming, compassionate aura, family and colleagues said.

“You would never know that the child had struggled the year before because they did so well in her class,” said fellow fourth-grade teacher GraceAnn Agueci. “If she had to correct them or talk to them about something, it was almost like in a whisper. The way that she spoke so coddlingly to them, they just looked at her like baby birds.”

A 25-year veteran at Ridge Elementary School, LaPrarie died Sunday about a month after being diagnosed with sarcoidosis, the same inflammatory disease that struck her brother, physical education teacher Jacque LaPrarie Sr., who died unexpectedly at his Smithtown home on Dec. 23 at age 61. Laurette LaPrarie, of Farmingdale, was 56.

At first, LaPrarie hadn’t intended to become a teacher, getting a business degree from Rutgers University, then working about 10 years at the Internal Revenue Service reviewing tax returns, her sisters said.

But her father, who died when she was 19, had been a school guidance counselor and her siblings were teachers. She followed the family’s footsteps, getting a master’s degree in education from Dowling College and a job in the Longwood Central School District, where her two sisters taught and her father had also been a teacher. LaPrarie’s classroom was next to the classroom where her youngest sister, Michelle King, also taught fourth-graders.

After it was suggested during a professional development course that educators should lead with positivity or be a “marigold” flower, colleagues said LaPrarie, who never wanted credit for always being helpful, was given the nickname “Marigold.” It was customary for LaPrarie to chair school committees and accept challenging students, they said. In the 2022-23 school year, the school recognized her leadership qualities and she was quoted in a newsletter saying it is hard to sleep the night before the first day of school and that she still got butterflies.

“Anyone who came in contact with Laurette would be instantly welcomed with the warm smile that was always on her face and would leave her feeling like they just made a new best friend,” Superintendent of Schools Lance Lohman posted on the district’s Instagram account.

LaPrarie didn't have her own children, relatives said, but she had plenty of kids to look after in her favorite role as “Aunt Rette.”

The time King had twin sons 14 months after giving birth to a daughter, LaPrarie was at her sister’s home to help the day the newborns arrived.

“My mom always said I couldn’t have done it without her, and it was absolutely the truth,” recalled King, of Holbrook.

LaPrarie attended all her nieces’ and nephews’ events, sometimes leaving one event early to rush to another, relatives said. If they called to ask her to go to Starbucks, shopping or anything else, she would drive to pick them up, they said.

In February, a few weeks after an autopsy diagnosed the cause of her brother’s death, a fatigued LaPrarie went into the hospital and a biopsy of a piece of her heart revealed sarcoidosis.

LaPrarie and her family thought she was going to beat the disease and talked about all the upcoming niece and nephew occasions she would attend, along with the usual vacation with the extended family.

She missed attending niece Shayla King’s cheerleading victory this month, when her Sachem High School East cheerleading team won its second consecutive state championship.

“She was like my best friend,” said Shayla, 17.

The two went grocery shopping together, got their nails done together, talked about life and got up early for quiet walks during family vacations, the niece recounted.

Now, the teenager said, “It’s just like there’s a missing piece in my heart.”

Besides her younger sister, she is also survived by her mother, Rosemary LaPrarie, of Farmingville; sister, Jeannine LaPrarie, of Rocky Point; and three nieces and three nephews.

A wake was held Thursday at Branch Funeral Home in Miller Place. A funeral Mass was celebrated Friday at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Holbrook, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.