Elaine Marshall Toscano

Elaine Kautz Marshall Toscano
Ms. Toscano, born Elaine Kautz in 1924,  grew up in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and East Orange, N.J.  She was the daughter of Edwin Kautz, a pacifist Southern Baptist Minister and theological professor.  She moved to Princeton with three young sons and a daughter, to live in a more accepting social environment for raising her children and where her mentally retarded daughter could best thrive.  As a housewife to Donald Marshall who worked at Western Electric on Carter Road in Princeton,  she wanted to work, have her own bank account and car.  She asked Dr. Phil McPherson, then schools superintendent in the Township, for a school position as a teacher so she could achieve more independence than a housewife had,  at a time when many husbands would not allow those liberties to their wives, in the early to mid 1960's.  She taught Kindergarten at Riverside School with Mrs. Rounds and later Community Park School under the principal Dr. Biringer,  teaching with Mr. Ishibashi.  She was a great friend to prominent Princeton women, Doris Decker, and Bani Shorter.  She was proud to work summers in the Head Start program in Trenton, and at Princeton Schools in the Pre-K program.  She taught for two decades and married a science teacher at Princeton High School,  John Toscano, of Cranbury, N.J. enjoying many years living with him at his Flower Farm.  She is survived by two sons, and five grandchildren.