Elisabeth Jane Constantino

Elisabeth Jane Constantino

Sparks - Elisabeth Jane Constantino (nee Smith) gracefully left this earth on August 13, 2019 at 4:44 AM in Sparks, Nevada surrounded by her family. She lived her life with intent, hard work, compassion and a strong sense of love. She was born in Medina, New York on November 2, 1925 and many times said she lived during the best of times: riding a horse drawn sleigh to her school to talking on the phone on facetime. She attended a one room schoolhouse which she attributed to her later success in life because after finishing her work, she would listen to other lessons and at an early age she became an avid reader and gifted mathematician. She was off to high school at the age of 10 and college at 15! At Sterling College in Kansas she graduated with degrees in math, English and teaching and earned the nickname "Candy" for her love of candy and the ability to eat a pound of candy and maintain her 25" waist.

After college she went home to help care for her grandparents and to run her parents' cherry-picking crew. While there she met and married Joseph (Joe) Constantino in Batavia New York in 1950. She was recruited to teach out West and taught high school in Hysham, MT. She eventually moved to Reno, NV in 1952 to take advantage of Nevada's divorce laws but as destiny would have it, Joe followed her and they stayed married. She spent one of the most memorable years of her life teaching in Yerington, NV and later taught at Reno High School. In 1956 she joined the math department at the University of Nevada Reno and taught until her retirement in 1986. According to her, "if you don't love math, it's because you haven't had a good math teacher". The lives that she touched teaching are innumerable and throughout her life it was not unusual to be greeted by one of her former students, including one of her hospice nurses.

Jane was a force. She applied for and earned a National Science Foundation grant to earn her MS in mathematics. She loaded all her kids in the car and drove to Champaign Urbana, IL for four summers. Those summers were some of the best times of her and her children's lives. While living in international married student housing in Illinois, they met friends from many different cultures and spent part of the summers at their grandparents' farm and with their Sicilian relatives. She was brave, driving a trailer and then a motorhome across the US with 5 children and no credit card. She didn't know how to back up the trailer or motorhome and always made sure she could pull out of every space. There was no obstacle she would not face and conquer.

Her children were also expected to work hard and had 5 paper routes. She got up early and for 7 years rolled over 200 papers and then rode her bike and helped her daughter with the biggest route. Her legacy lives on in the good work she did throughout her life. While at UNR she was the faculty member called when the Black Student Organization occupied the student union building. She helped disperse the crowd and brought both sides together to discuss the situation together. We cannot count the number of students or children that she helped, from foster children, or as the faculty representative to the African Student and International Clubs at UNR, to helping students who were disenfranchised during the Iranian crisis. She considered Ntebeng Mathibela a daughter after she lived with mom for 5 years as an international student from South Africa.

She was a true Renaissance woman ahead of her time: recycling before it was popular (we are quite sure there are many students who remember trading aluminum cans for tutoring), flipping over 50 houses in the 1960s and 1970s (with her children providing much of the work which she translated as building character), believing in the rights of all people, and accepting all people wherever they were in life. She never missed one of her children's plays, concerts or track meets and countless students, friends and relatives benefitted from her generosity of an open home, help with homework or an ear to listen.

Jane was preceded in death by her parents, Floyd and Ora Lucile Smith (Hensleigh) and her brother Garra Hensleigh Smith. She also buried three children, David Patrick, Lela Louise and Joel Floyd. She is survived by her children and their families: Carala Cherry (Robert) of San Clemente, California; Samantha Constantino (Carlos Gonzalez) and Nora Constantino (Christopher Smith) of Reno; and Rebecca Constantino (Steven Sines) of Los Angeles, California. Her beloved grandchildren are Ariane Cherry (Aryeh Jacobsohn), Gianna and Carala Gonzalez, Whitney Beattie (Codey), Joel and Olivia Constantino-Smith, Tasha, Sabine and Giovanni Sines and Joshua and Patrick Constantino. She also leaves behind great granddaughter Rylie.

Many thanks to Tammy Byrne, our Renown Hospice nurse, for her love and care of mom for the last 8 months.

All are invited to celebrate her life on September 5, 2019 at 4 PM at First Congregational Church 627 Sunnyside Dr, Reno, NV. One of her final wishes, in lieu of flowers, was to please consider a donation to Access Books, an organization that revitalizes underserved elementary school libraries which was founded by her daughter Rebecca.

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