Obituary: Tracy Marie Brewington

Tracy Marie Brewington, a longtime Montclair resident and a former kindergarten teacher, died on Feb. 21, 2023. She was 60.

Ms. Brewington was born in 1962 to John David Brewington Sr. and Louise Taylor Brewington in Glen Ridge, the first of their two children.  She was raised and educated in Montclair and graduated from Montclair High School in 1980.  

She attended Hampton Institute in Virginia, her father's alma mater. After her time at Hampton, with additional coursework completed at Katharine Gibbs School in Montclair, Ms. Brewington received a B.A. in humanities at Montclair State College.  

She worked at Metropolitan Insurance and Dun & Bradstreet, both in Newark, before realizing "business" was not her thing and decided to go into teaching, as her mother had done.  She was hired by the Board of Education in East Orange, where she taught kindergarten for 12 years, until illness forced her to take an early retirement.

Ms. Brewington was an avid piano player who began twinkling the keys at age 6.  She was active in several school plays as a youth, a major achievement for an admittedly shy kid. She joined Union Baptist Church at age 12, after several years of attending Sunday school, where her Mom taught and her Dad served as head of its trustee board.  

She also sang in Union Baptist’s William H. Gray youth choir.  She would later attend services at Trinity Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir for several years.  

One of her greatest joys was the annual family trip to visit relativesin Virginia and North Carolina.  Over the course of 25 years, until the death of her father, it was she who memorized all the highways, knew how long each leg of the trip would take and was always smart enough to bring her favorite pillow to sleep on.  

Her love of seafood and her best memories of life, family, summers, the beach and her doting older cousins were firmly established on these trips, and she longed to return.  

Ms. Brewington will be remembered as shy, generous, cantankerous at times but loyal always.  

She is survived by her mother, Louise; younger brother, John David Jr.; godsister; Terri Leach-Coleman; aunts, Edith Mae Cosby and Julia Taylor, both of Virginia, and numerous cousins, other relatives and friends.

Ms. Brewington was predeceased by her father, John David Sr.       

Visitation is Thursday, March 2, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 5 High St., with a funeral service following at 11. Interment will be at Rosedale Cemetery.

Arrangements were by Martin’s Home for Service, 48 Elm St.