 | | | Aug. 11, 1916 - Dec. 11, 2022 | | | | | | Elsie Anna Rossetto Gallo was born and raised in Weed, Calif. (Siskiyou County). After graduating from Weed High School, she attended UC Berkeley and graduated in 1939. She worked part time at Cal and managed to graduate in four years.
She earned three teaching certificates - General Elementary, General Secondary (High School and first two years of college) and Learning Disabilities. She had experience teaching in all three credentials.
She almost pursued a career in singing. A college singing professor was amazed at the wonderful voice she had and told her to pursue a career in singing instead of teaching. She was known as the girl who was always singing. She disappointed many friends for not pursuing a singing career.
Her teaching career started when she was a sophomore in high school. She was asked to take over her church choir and that meant teaching songs for Sunday mass and playing the organ. Also, when she was in high school, she had her own singing group and taught them not only songs in English, but also songs in Spanish and Italian. Her Spanish teacher was so proud of her that she brought her singing group to back to school night and had her group sing songs in Spanish.
She was a popular teacher among students. Her high school students use to tease her and call her a slave driver. They used to say "Boy, you sure can't get away with anything with her." Even with her back turned she knew who was paying attention and who wasn't. "You had to be dumb not to get an 'A' or a 'B' in her class the way she hammered the material in your head." She was also known to go behind the scenes of struggling students who were flunking. She was able to correct and find out what the problems were and helped them. Some problems were simple, some were complex, but she managed to correct them. She was also a popular teacher among African American students. She was told that she was the only teacher who knew how to relate to them. The African American students even surprised her with a big party to honor her. The janitors were fond of her as well. She was told that she was the only teacher who treated them with respect even though they were janitors.
She enjoyed and loved her teaching career. Some of her students made it through college due to her extra help. She was a resident of Moraga since December of 1954. She met her future husband, Victor Gallo, through a mutual friend while still living in Berkeley, Calif. They married in the Catholic Church in Berkeley.
Elsie and Victor bought a house in Moraga, Calif. and raised one daughter and one son. Elsie stayed home to take care of her children. When the children were older and on their own, Elsie went to get her teaching certificate for the educationally handicapped. She taught at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School in Moraga for the last 30 years. She then retired from teaching.
Elsie is survived by her to children, Christina Gallo and Tom Gallo. She is also survived by three grandchildren, Sean, Christopher, and Aaron Mallory. She is also survived by her nieces, Vicki and Susan Crawford, Marla Brendel, and her nephews Bart, Eric and Alex Brendel.
Elsie also enjoyed her kitties and being with her grandsons. She will be missed by all of her family. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA