Katie Lavin, 53, dedicated teacher from Babylon who 'adored' her students

Katie Lavin learned to play the ukulele for  a lesson on the letter U and dressed up as characters in children’s books — anything to help her young students learn to read.

She knew she wanted to be a teacher from a young age as she played school in the home basement with siblings and later helped her father, a fourth-grade teacher, with his students' papers, family members said. The profession combined her love of reading with her love of helping people, they said. Education was the ticket out of adversity, as her parents taught her and her 12 siblings, and Lavin never failed to champion the underdogs who had problems reading.

“She just had this knack of understanding where the misunderstanding was,” said her sister Joan Weaver of Sayville. “If someone was struggling, she could pick up why just by observing and working with them, then work on an action plan to remedy that situation.”

Lavin, of Babylon Village, died at age 53 of a heart attack on April 8.

With a psychology degree from Molloy College and a master’s in education from Dowling College, she taught for 30 years at various schools, including third grade at Birch Lane Elementary in Massapequa Park and most recently, prekindergarten at Fort Salonga Elementary School in Kings Park.

She especially loved teaching at St. Patrick Catholic School in Bay Shore and at St. Joseph’s Church in Babylon because she could be open about her faith, her family said. 

“One of her favorite phrases is ‘Always remember to be Jesus-like,’ ” said her husband, Mike Lavin.  “Whenever you’re struggling with kids or you’re having an argument or someone’s angry at you, remember how Jesus would have reacted — that was her thing.”

Katie Lavin absorbed the teaching lessons passed to her from her father, James Watt, whose photo she kept on her classroom desk. She never forgot that she should tailor lessons to each student to help them succeed, her family said.

“She adored the kids in the class,” Mike Lavin said. “To see them from Day One to the last day of class and the difference that she made was the most rewarding part. 

“She spent every night when she came home from school and every weekend preparing arts and crafts for the class. So our dining room was literally a factory for her classroom, whether it was trying things out or tracing things or gluing things. It just made her so happy. So I was happy seeing her doing it.”

He and Katie started dating as seniors at Massapequa High School. She liked him because his jokes made her laugh, Lavin recalled, and he was attracted to her “gigantic, bright smile that would turn the lights on in any room.”

The day he proposed, he recounted, she wore a Native American feather headband that had been part of her teaching lesson that day. She knew something serious was coming when he asked her to remove the headpiece, Lavin said. He recited a poem he wrote, one that ended with “Would you be my wife?” They married in 1994.

The Lavin household was the hub of get-togethers with relatives and friends; even the couple’s anniversary celebrations included their four sons.

“We always had her family around and my family around,” Lavin said. “It was always bigger than us, which was important to both of us. Her big thing was being host . . . Our tables were always full and joyful.”

The couple’s St. Patrick’s Day parties were the talk of their circles, said her friend Claire Moule of East Islip: “The house was always crowded with family, friends, in-laws and outlaws. She always had plenty of corned beef and cabbage and added a few 6-foot heroes to keep everyone happy.”

Katie Lavin’s chocolate chip cookies were also well known, those who knew her said. She’d bar everyone from the kitchen for a day or so while she made hundreds of cookies, mailing them to nieces and nephews in college and giving them to anyone in her orbit. 

 Weaver described Lavin's mass baking as a “care factory.”  “It was her way of letting them know she was thinking of them,” the sister said.

Besides her husband and sister, Lavin is also survived by her sons, Michael of Dublin, Ireland, Brian of Astoria, Queens, and Matthew and Liam, both of Babylon; mother, Joan Watt of Massapequa; sisters, Margaret Lynch of Arlington, Virginia, Mary Ann Lagnese of Fountain Hills, Arizona, Jeanne Battaglia of Massapequa, Ann McCambley of Stamford, Connecticut; and brothers, James Watt of San Juan Capistrano, California, Edward and Daniel Watt, both of Towson, Maryland, Michael Watt of Babylon and Jon Watt of Santa Ana, California.

A Mass was celebrated Friday at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Babylon, followed by cremation. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.