Martha Newton Memmott

LITTLE VALLEY — A retired Rochester City School District teacher and active volunteer in two communities, Martha Newton Memmott, died Thursday (Aug. 21, 2025) in Portland, Maine. She fell Aug. 6 while on vacation and did not recover from severe brain injuries. Martha was 78.

Born in Salamanca, the fourth of sixth children, she grew up in Little Valley, where her father Arthur was the central school principal and her mother Sara was a homemaker and former teacher.

After graduating from Little Valley Central School in 1964, she went to Buffalo State College, majoring in special education.

Following graduation in 1968, she moved to Rochester, where she taught at School 5 and School 29 before retiring in 2001. She lived in a condo in a converted Rochester school building and was long active on the condo board.

She was a volunteer with Special Olympics and with outreach centers. In retirement, she met regularly with friends and traveled often.

Martha also was part of the community in Little Valley, where she had a second home. She was a leader with the village’s annual Holiday Cheer effort and other groups, always giving of her time and energy.

In addition to being a loyal daughter and sister, Martha was also an aunt’s aunt, adoring her grandnieces and grandnephews. She could be counted on to babysit, to go to performances and to send along gifts. She also was an avid reader, a lover of the theater, a traveler and a diner who documented every restaurant meal with photographs.

Martha is survived by her sister, Elizabeth (Tom) Cowley of Baldwinsville; and her brothers, Ed (Theresa) of Olean, Jim (Cindy Schmitt) of Geneseo, John (Nicki) of Oberlin, Ohio and Mark (Carol) of Austin, Texas. She was “Fa-Fa” to 14 nieces and nephews, many grandnieces and grandnephews and two great-grandnieces.

Memorial services are pending.

Martha supported many charities, including the Special Olympics, the Little Valley Fund and the Memmott-Langhans Scholarship. She would have been honored by any donations made in her memory.

Arrangements are under the direction of Mentley Funeral Home Inc., 411 Rock City St. in Little Valley, where online condolences may be made at www.mentleyfuneralhome.com.