OBITUARY Sarah Jeannine Brahaney November 22, 1942 – July 14, 2018 Sarah Jeannine Menees Brahaney, beloved wife, mother, aunt, cousin, sister-in-law, friend and teacher, born on November 22, 1942, passed away on Saturday, July 14, 2018. She is survived by her husband, Jim Brahaney, daughter, Sharon Brahaney, son, James Brahaney, and preceded by her parents, Jim and Mary Sue Menees. Jeannine graduated from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville Branch with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education in Sociology and History, and attended many post-graduate programs in history and education throughout her teaching career.
She taught in Middletown Public Schools in New York where she met her husband who also taught at Middletown High School. Jim and Jeannine moved to Fairfax County in 1968 where she stayed home to raise her children for ten years, and then began her teaching career again in 1979 at Justice High School (formerly J.E.B. Stuart High School). She taught World History, World Geography, History Concepts to students who were English Language Learners, Sociology, and Psychology as well as team taught inclusion classes that focused on integrating students with disabilities into a general education classroom.
While teaching at Justice High School, Jeannine served as the Social Studies Department Chair, served on the Steering Committee for Southern States Accreditation, chaired a committee that created strategies for teaching English Language Learners in sheltered and mainstreamed classes. She retired from Fairfax County Public Schools in 1999. Jeannine was awarded the National Defense Education Act grant for Asian Studies at New Paltz University in 1967.
She received a Taft Grant to study government at the University of Virginia in 1980. In 1988, she was awarded the Rotary Club Teacher of the Year award. In 1991, she traveled throughout Mexico and Guatemala with a Fulbright-Hayes Study and Travel Grant.
Jeannine moved back to Tennessee when she retired from teaching to assist her mother in the care of her father who was in failing health. She oversaw and managed the building of her home in Neely’s Bend. She volunteered for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and volunteered for over 1,000 hours for that institution.
She and her husband also volunteered for the Tennessee Center for Performing Arts and the Tennessee Repertory Theater . She also volunteered reading to first grade students at local schools in the Nashville area. Jim and Jeannine also enjoyed traveling around the world and the nation.
They visited Seattle, New Orleans, San Francisco, Maine, Colorado, Hawaii, Arizona just to name a few states. They also visited Peru, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, London, Scotland, Ireland, Paris, and various parts of Canada. Jeannine was a phenomenal woman who was educated, compassionate, tough, strong, and gracious.
She is a force who will be missed by all whose lives she touched. The family requests that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to either the American Cancer Society or to Alive Hospice of Madison TN.
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