ASTORIA — Helen McCann was left with three small children to raise on her own after her husband Edward died in 1941. The future seemed uncertain for the young widow, but there was one thing she was sure of — that her kids would get a Catholic education.
And so, she enrolled her daughter, Patricia, and her sons, Edward and Joseph, in Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Astoria, where Patricia graduated in 1947, followed by Edward in 1951 and Joseph in 1955. To pay for their tuition, Helen took any job she could get — working as a file clerk and wrapping presents in a department store.
While the family did not have much money, Helen instilled in her children a love of reading and made sure there were always newspapers and other reading materials around their house in Astoria, her son Joseph recalled.
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Helen’s dedication to Catholic education and her love of the written word, which she instilled in her children, led Immaculate Conception to dedicate its school library in her memory in 2021. The McCann family donated money to the school for the McCann Library, and a plaque dedicating the room to her was placed outside the entrance.
Joseph, 85, returned to Immaculate Conception on March 11 to help re-dedicate the McCann Library following an eight-month renovation and redecorating project.
Eager to make the library top-notch, Principal Keri-Ann Wade-Donohue enlisted parents and students to reorganize the library — throwing out old, outdated books, organizing the remaining books for display, rebuilding the shelves, installing new carpets, and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
For McCann, a retired senior vice president of public affairs for PepsiCo, his return took him down memory lane and gave him a chance to speak to the children.
Immaculate Conception had about 800 students when he went there, he told the students. He explained that at the time, there were 40 children in each class, and the school year was split in half, with some students starting in September and others in January, and nearly all the teachers were nuns, he recalled.
The school’s current students enjoyed hearing about the McCann family’s legacy.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” fourth grader Joseph Rodriguez said.
The kids also felt proud of their contributions to the library’s reorganizing project.
“The library looks pretty organized,” said eighth grader Evan Galang, who helped sort the books.
Looking back, McCann said his mother never wavered when it came to their schooling.
“She really believed in Catholic school for us,” he recalled, adding that she had two main reasons. “It was really a mix of religion on one side and discipline on the other.”
