Her students dressed her in a gold cape and handmade crown, the school board named a kindergarten classroom in her honor and the mayor declared it ``Nellie M. Karrey Day.'' It was all part of a celebration by this western Massachusetts city for the teacher who, for more than a half-century, has gently introduced its children to school. ``It was such a surprise. It was a big secret and the children didn't tell,'' Miss Karrey, 78, said Friday. ``They were awfully cute.''' She will retire this month after 54 years of teaching, including 51 in North Adams kindergarten classrooms. She and her three sisters, also teachers, never wanted to do anything else, Miss Karrey said. ``I don't like cooking and I don't like gardening, but kindergarten was my niche.'' The celebrations began Thursday with a gala assembly at Greylock Elementary School where, with a paper crown perched on her gray curls, she accepted each class' handmade tributes, poems and cheers as well as proclamations from local and national politicians. A fifth-grade class changed the lyrics of ``She's Coming Around the Mountain'' and sang ``She gave us birthday cards and pulled our teeth ... she taught all my aunts and uncles and grandpa, too.'' ``One of the classes gave her a quilt, and put in it some of the things that she was noted for, such as the clay handprints,'' said Principal Stephen A. Boisvert. ``Every Christmas for as long as I can remember she has had each of the children in her class make an imprint of their hand in clay. And then she paints the imprints so they can give them to their parents. They have become family treasures,'' he said. Thursday evening, more than 300 of her former students turned out for an open house at the school. In keeping with one of her traditions, each of Miss Karrey's former students received a lollipop. ``She had a large tent in her classroom with a candle on top and a box of lollipops inside and whenever one of the children had a birthday they would light the candle and the child whose birthday it was would get to pass out a lollipop to everyone in the class,'' Boisvert said. ``She's an outstanding teacher, because of her flexibility and her warm relationship with the children,'' Boisvert said. Each fall for the 23 years he has been at the school, he said, she has gleefully reported that this was her best class ever. Five-year-olds, Miss Karrey said, haven't changed much over the past 50 years. ``They're all sweet as youngsters,'' she said. ``The smart ones are very smart now, because of all the opportunities they have to go places and be exposed to things through television and VCRs,'' she said. ``And the others I'm not going to tell you about.'' As for teacher burnout, Miss Karrey scoffed. ``I don't know what they are talking about,'' she said. ``I love the children and I'll miss them terribly.''
