The Jefferson R-7 School District community was shocked by the sudden death of Andrea Hammock, a longtime administrative assistant on the high school counseling staff.
Hammock, 44, of Bonne Terre, who also was secretary to the R-7 Board of Education, died June 7 of complications from a knee injury she sustained in May.
The community has rallied around her family, collecting donations through the district’s Blue Jay Foundation.
District Superintendent David Haug said he has known Hammock since about 2003.
“She was always great to work with, always very professional,” Haug said. “She was very quiet, and her way was to be in the background, making sure things got done and went smoothly. Her greatest strength was the way she unselfishly went about her business. Her goal was to ease the way for others to have success.”
Suzanne Richardson, now senior director of the Area Technical School program at Jefferson College, was head counselor at Jefferson High School when Hammock joined the district for the 2012-2013 school year, when its first class graduated.
She said Hammock was instrumental in the high school’s successful start.
“She was such an amazing find for us as a very new school,” she said. “We had to do a lot of things for the first time, and her contributions were huge.”
Hammock was known for compassion, her colleagues said.
“She had a natural mothering sense for the kids, and she would just know if a child was in crisis,” Richardson said. “She knew when to just let them sit and when to escalate things, to interrupt me or pull me out of a meeting. She was such a gift to this world.”
Hammock, widowed in 2005 when her two daughters were young, became an integral part of the R-7 community.
“She was involved with the athletic boosters, with Project Prom,” Haug said. “And she was the real driving force behind our ‘Hoops for Hope’ program (that raises funds for families affected by cancer.)”
Haug said Hammock will be sorely missed and finding a replacement will be tough.
“You’re not talking about just replacing someone in a job; you’re talking about replacing some of the culture of our district,” he said.
A funeral service was set for Wednesday, after Leader deadline, at DeClue Funeral Home in Potosi, with school district officials taking part.
“Some of us are going to speak at the funeral, if we can get through it (without crying),” Haug said Monday. “We are putting together some forms to hand out, to give people an opportunity to contribute both monetarily and to recount their memories for her daughters to have.”
Richardson said her friend and colleague always had high expectations for herself, no matter what challenges life threw at her.
“Andrea knew, ‘If I work hard and do my best, no matter what, I’m going to be OK.’ She radiated that attitude,” Richardson said.