Claretta B. Alston Green, teacher

Claretta B. Alston Green, a retired Baltimore City Public Schools teacher, died of respiratory failure May 23 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 85.

Born Claretta B. Alston in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Hilliard Alston, a Bethlehem Steel worker, and Obiedell Alston, a homemaker. She was raised on Miller Street in East Baltimore and was a 1947 Paul Laurence Dunbar High School graduate. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education at Morgan State University after she had raised her family.

She then began to work as a reading lab assistant at Elmer A. Henderson Elementary School. Later, she moved to Dunbar High School as an assistant in the English Department. She taught at the Margaret Brent Elementary School and the Waverly Elementary School, where she retired in 1992.

“In all of her work in the schools, her main desire was to see all children succeed and to do their best work in becoming good citizens,” said her son, Edgar Green Jr. of Baltimore. “She involved herself with many projects that allowed her to meet the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical needs of many people in the community.”

Mrs. Green enjoyed reading and keeping a journal. She also walked around Lake Montebello in the Montebello neighborhood, where she resided for over 50 years. She also enjoyed visiting museums, theater productions and concerts. She was a fan of the Morgan State University Choir.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. today at Faith Baptist Church, 833 N. Bond St., where she taught or had led the Sunday school for 65 years.

In addition to her son, she is survived by her husband of 66 years, Edgar Green Sr., a retired Bethlehem Steel worker; another son, Lamont Green of Baltimore; a daughter, Angela Saunders of Pikesville; two brothers, Lloyd M. Alston Sr. and Joseph Earl Alston, both of Baltimore; two sisters, Gertrude Lewis of Baltimore and Adele Israel of Catonsville; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.