Nancy H. Babington

Legendary, Enchanting Kindergarten Teacher Whose Love Nourished Generations
Nancy Babington, whose loving presence, enchanting playfulness, and legendary radiance made her one of Massachusetts's most beloved kindergarten teachers for more than three decades, passed peacefully, surrounded by loved ones sweetly singing, on Thanksgiving, November 27, 2025. She was gorgeously 83.
Born on February 18, 1942 in Medford, MA, the daughter of Rosamond and Wilfred Harrison, Ms. Babington studied at Lesley College, Perry Normal School, and the University of Massachusetts. She lived in East Bridgewater for nearly 35 years, where she became known as a beloved neighbor and as a sanctuary for scruffy strays of all kinds.
Between 1966 and 2001, she taught kindergarten in Chicopee Falls, Plympton, and, most enduringly, Kingston, where she served for 23 years. Admirers at school and beyond (of which there were oodles) nicknamed her "Ms. Babe-ington," a lighthearted acknowledgment of her brilliant teaching, her softly powerful radiance, and her effortless beauty that turned heads, hearts, and minds.
She once said, "I loved every single day of being a kindergarten teacher." Meanwhile, her students also loved every single day spent alongside her. Throughout her career, she taught more than a thousand children, greeting each one on their first day of school with her luxurious warmth and enchanting welcome. She helped shy children feel brave, talkative children feel heard, homesick children feel comforted, and every child feel wholly safe.
Year after year, Ms. Babington brilliantly created a vibrant classroom brimming with a pedagogy of playful love–an immersive, spirited world made of rainbow colors, happy music, safe hugs, wild giggling, bounding joy, and freedom for everyone to be themselves. Students fondly remember her drying their tears as she held them in her rocking chair, dancing on tables to the soundtrack of Flashdance, twirling students around in celebration of their cuteness, strumming her guitar or autoharp as the whole class sang along, and sending them home with little portraits she drew that looked just like them.
Her students responded with heartfelt and sometimes questionable gestures of love. One little girl so adored Ms. Babington that the kindergartener went home and secretly raided her mother's jewelry box. When she returned to school the next day, she gave all of her mother's jewelry to Ms. Babington, proud to offer the most glamorous gift a five-year-old could imagine.
In all things, through the easy broadness of her smile and the gentle magic in her twinkly eyes, Ms. Babington invited students to join her in transforming ordinary moments into something softly mythic-inspiring curiosity, confidence, and courage as she shepherded them through the ups and downs of early childhood lessons, like those involving self-control, social skills, spilling stuff, spelling, solving problems, speaking up, and so much more.
On the last day of school, Ms. Babington handed each student a personalized handmade bookmark, inscribed with her supremely legible block-print handwriting, "Thank you for being mine for a year. I will always love you," complete with a sticker, right in the middle, of a happy animal. Gripping this little love letter, her students glowed triumphant heading into the summer, having successfully completed their first big leap from the nest of home into the wider world of elementary school learning, understanding, and becoming.
Beyond the classroom, Nancy was just as beloved by her neighbors. She became family to those around her-listening to the confessions of overwhelmed parents, welcoming their children into her home to draw and listen to music, playing frisbee with their dogs, joining them for fishing trips, and celebrating their milestones. Her neighbors say she also supported them through difficult seasons of life, becoming a second mother or grandmother to many through sharing easy laughter, home cooked meals, and long conversations late into the night. Her neighbors in East Bridgewater, and later Wingate, shared the same sentiment, that she was "everything to a lot of people".
After retiring from teaching at 60, Ms. Babington returned to her first loves: drawing, pen-and-ink work, and photography, building the Harrison Art Studio next to her home-her creative sanctuary. She also ran an animal placement service for 25 years, rescuing and rehoming countless creatures. And, she reveled in having more time to spend with her family of friends, neighbors, and menagerie of happy animals.
She is survived by her brother, Wilfred P. Harrison III and his wife the late Carol Harrison of Arlington, MA, relatives in England; by her nephew Jim Harrison of Connecticut and niece Connie Mitchell of San Diego; by friends she loved as family and gathered across a lifetime of kindness, including Barbara St George and her late husband Ron, Shivonne St George and her wife, Erika and son Micah; Kaitlin Mills (St George), her husband Abraham and their three daughters Everly, Acadia, and Isla; Val Spence, Zara Sikora and their partner, August Dolan; by Addison Beaux, her kindergarten student and lifelong friend always aspiring to be Ms. Babe-ington's most devoted admirer among the oodles; and by many dear friends, neighbors, students, colleagues, and loved ones she so deeply appreciated and whose lives she mutually brightened forever.
Brilliantly loving and luminous, Nancy Babington lives on in those fortunate enough to know her presence-especially every child who first met themselves and the world through her love.
Thank you for being ours for 83 years. We will always love you.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Nancy's memory may be made to the Kingston Elementary School Library.
All who wish to honor Nancy Babington are welcome to attend a period of visitation on Saturday, February 28, 2026, from 9:30 am to 10:30 am at the Cartmell-Davis Life Celebration Funeral Home, 373 Court Street, Plymouth. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary's Church, 313 Court Street, Plymouth, following the visitation at 11:00 am.