Nancianne Martin, 81, Retired Brecksville High Gym Teacher, Cheerleading and Basketball Coach

Nancianne Martin taught health and physical education and coached basketball and cheerleading during her 30-year career at before retiring in 1982.

Martin, who died March 11 at age 81, was inducted into the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Gallery of Achievement in 2004 as a faculty member and as a former student.

The lifelong Brecksville resident also was among the volunteers the honored last year for 10 years of service to the community.

The Martins were featured in the City of Brecksville 2010 Calendar, which detailed some of their lives as managers of the city's telephone exchange.

Born Sept. 26, 1929, Martin was the only child of Horace and Faye Martin, who managed Brecksville’s telephone exchange from their home from 1924 until September 1938 when Ohio Bell took over the phone service and made it a dial system.

Her parents took turns sleeping on a cot near the switchboard to handle overnight calls. Their daughter, who was 9 when Ohio Bell took over, also handled switchboard duties on occasion.

Nancianne Martin graduated in 1947 from Brecksville High, where she was a cheerleader, basketball player and student council member.

She excelled at basketball and synchronized swimming at , where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education in 1951.

For 64 years, Martin belonged to the . For most of those years, she sang in the church choir.

She was a 62-year member of Brecksville Chapter Order of the Eastern Star and a charter member of Rainbow Girls.

Martin served as a Brecksville Historical Association trustee and on the Brecksville Bicentennial historian committee.

She represented her class with the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Alumni Association for many years.

Martin also regularly attended other classes’ reunions to the delight of such former homeroom students as Ray Orley, Brecksville Class of 1959.

“She was unfailingly cheerful,” said Orley, who said that Martin’s smile and enthusiasm successfully drove away his morning grumpiness in homeroom.

Martin’s parents, Horace and Faye (nee Snider) Martin, are deceased.

She is survived by cousins, David, Stewart, Wayne, J.B., Ron, Thomas and Debbie Snider and Jack Winget.

A memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 19, at Brecksville United Church of Christ, 23 Public Square, Brecksville, OH 44141.

Donations may be made to the church.

Arrangements are by .