ED 243 Magazine Project

Q&A
with Mrs. O
1) Tell us about yourself
My name is Elizabeth Sayre
Oldendorp, but my nickname is Lisa.
I am the youngest of 3 siblings. I was
born in NY City, but my parents
moved to the suburbs when I was 1
year old. It was a town called
Levittown, NY, the first post-WWII
development built primarily to house
veterans returning from the war. I
went to Catholic schools from
kindergarten through college. Some
things were great about them; other
things were not. My mother was one
of 8 children of Italian immigrants.
Both parents died by the time she was
7 years old. The 8 children were
raised by relatives. Because of
discrimination against Italians, who
were the “enemy” in WWII, my
mother’s family spoke English at
home (her father knew English in
Italy) and outside the home. The
Italian language was lost quite quickly
in my family. My father was part
English and part German. His
father’s English ancestors came to
America in the mid 1700’s and settled
on Long Island. My grandmother was
German; I’m not sure when her
parents came to America. My father
died of a heart attack when I was 14; I
was devastated. My mom died when
I was just 33; my children barely
knew her.
2) Could you tell us more
about your background in
education? When did you
start teaching, and what
made you decide to
become a teacher?