Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992 TAG: 9201220351
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
TEACHER LIVED, DIED HELPING CHILDREN
Those who knew her say it was in character for Lesia Martindale to die trying to save one of her children.She would have done anything for a child: her own son and daughter as well as the sons and daughters of other Botetourt County parents.
Until an accident took her life, Martindale helped some of the county's neediest children during her years of teaching handicapped preschoolers at Breckinridge Elementary School.
One of those preschoolers was Jacob Kihm.
"I think he's a better person now," said Lisa Kihm, Jacob's mother.
Jacob was 3 when his parents realized he had developmental problems that kept him from learning at the pace of others his age.
Martindale would put a sticker in Jacob's notebook each time he reached one of the small goals she set: Sitting up straight, not yelling or keeping his hands to himself.
It took patience and communication with the family, but soon Jacob was doing all he could to please her, his mother said Tuesday as she recalled the effect Martindale had on her son.
And now, at age 6, Jacob is able to be part of a regular kindergarten class thanks to the special attention Martindale gave him.
Martindale became more than a teacher to Jacob and his family; she became a friend. "She really cared. She cared about our lives," Kihm said.
Martindale died Monday after picking up her 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter from a babysitter. After she put her son in the car, it began to roll backward down a driveway. While trying to get her son out of the back seat, she became pinned between the car door and a concrete lamp post at the bottom of the driveway, fatally injuring her.
School guidance counselors told pupils Tuesday morning of the death of their teacher, but said it will take weeks for it to sink in.
"We told them that she had died and that she would not be coming back to this room ever again. And then we just let them talk about it," said counselor Wanda Martin.
Martindale was one of three teachers of handicapped preschoolers for the county.
Patty King, a teacher who shared a classroom with Martindale, called her a "scrounger" who loved to dig up new ideas, to seek out ideas from other teachers and to share those ideas with other teachers.
"That's what teaching's all about," she said.
One of those ideas was the snowman standing a little lopsided against one wall of the classroom. Martindale's pupils stuffed newspapers into three white garbage bags and stacked them. Then they went on a nature walk to find sticks for the arms.
Standing amid the toys and books of the cluttered classroom, King looked at the plastic snowman and said it will be a long time before she'll be able to put it away.
It was a symbol of Martindale's love of being creative, King said. "One of her favorite things was to get the children to do things with their hands."
Martindale taught a while in her native Smyth County before she began teaching at the Botetourt school seven years ago. She taught preschoolers the past four years.
Martindale recently told friends that she realized she had found her niche with the preschoolers.
Principal Weldon Martin, sitting slumped and exhausted behind his desk, shook his head as he recalled the irony of something Martindale had told him just last week.
She said, "This is the happiest I've been in my teaching career. This is what I was meant to do."