Teacher of old school so hip she could rap

Miss Brown - Essie McDonald 1913-2007

Miss Brown - for that is how those Australians still refer to her - was one of those teachers so gifted that they not simply make the best of their students' talents but help them relish their schooldays and glimpse their futures. She changed lives.

Essie Brown, who has died at 93, was a fifth-generation Australian of convict, English gentry and Aussie battler stock, back to Richard Porter, who was sentenced to death at Nottingham in 1789 for burglary. The sentence was commuted to life and he arrived in Sydney in 1790 on the Surprise. Ann Hutchinson and her daughter, Mary, arrived in 1791 on the Mary Ann after both were sentenced to seven years for stealing clothing.

Richard and Ann married in 1797. She died in 1805 and he wed Mary in 1811. They had five children, three of whom were born at Parramatta, where Miss Brown was to make her name. Essie's great-great-grandfather Tom Brown was a preacher of substance in southern NSW. Her grandfather, John Knott, was of English gentry from Hertfordshire.

Essie Brown was one of four daughters born to Ernest Brown, a teacher, and his wife, Beatrix, in Yass. She was about four when the family moved to Palmers Island, in the Clarence River near Yamba, where Ernest taught and Essie went to school.

She won a place at Sydney Girls High and took her Leaving Certificate at Bowral High School after her father moved there to teach. After graduating with a bachelor of arts and diploma of Education from the University of Sydney, she taught at Young and Orange high schools before being posted in 1951 to Parramatta High. The selective school had been founded in the year of her birth and was the first co-educational high school in Sydney.

She became known for her teaching of English and modern history. In an era when most teaching was stiff and formal, she was stimulating and supportive, with a sense of humour. "When Lady Macbeth says, 'Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" ' the teacher might say, "She wasn't talking to her dog."

In her last years at Parramatta, she was - during the first miniskirt age - a supervisor of girls. She would have students kneel while she measured the distance between tunic hem and floor. Yet she had a sense of the absurd, adored the English language, deplored its misuse and could recite long passages into her 90s. Until recently she completed the Herald's cryptic crossword every day, commenting on the different clues given by different creators. And she could discuss hip-hop and rap.

Brown met Fred McDonald, a dental mechanic, while teaching in Orange. His father was Syrian and his name was originally Saleeby. They had a long relationship, marrying in Yamba after retiring there when Brown left Parramatta in 1968. They shared an interest in photography, winning prizes for their work.

They had no children, but kept an enduring interest in the welfare of the children she nurtured. Many visited regularly.

Essie McDonald's ashes were scattered on the Clarence. She is survived by 12 nieces and nephews, and the thousands who knew her as Miss Brown.

Tony Stephens