Corner dedicated to late crossing guard

Marie Roscher didn’t think she would be a crossing guard for long, according to her daughter, Kathleen. When she returned from the corner of Rockaway Avenue, Horton Avenue and Horton Road on her first day of work, she told her husband she didn’t think she could handle the job. “She said it wasn’t for her,” Kathleen Roscher said.

Thirty years later, the corner where the late crossing guard helped guide more than a generation of Valley Stream children to safety was named in her honor.

At a dedication ceremony last Friday, Roscher’s family was joined by children and staff from the nearby William L. Buck Elementary School, as well as co-workers, friends and village officials. They shared personal memories before unveiling a sign that officially made the intersection Marie Roscher Corner.

Roscher’s three children, Kathleen, Michael and Jim, made their way back to Valley Stream, with some traveling from California for the ceremony. Kathleen Roscher said the event and name dedication was all made possible by her cousin, Kim Ciprian.

Ciprian, who remembers her mother’s aunt Marie helping her cross the street to get to Brooklyn Avenue School when she was a child, said she brought the idea of dedicating the intersection nearest to the William L. Buck School to school officials first.

Principal Mark Onorato said he absolutely wanted to support Ciprian in having the corner renamed for the crossing guard, a woman he said kept many students heading to his school on Horton Avenue safe while walking across the busy Rockaway Avenue. “When the kids are crossing any busy street like this one, you have concerns,” Onorato said. “But I would always come down and see the kids smiling. She set the standard for crossing guards and made things easier for the children coming up. They knew the rules and ways of the road, and they were comfortable.”

Mayor Ed Fare, who was a village trustee when the proposal to name the corner in Roscher’s honor was brought to the board, said the local officials were also happy to help Ciprian honor her relative. He said Marie Roscher became a part of the fabric of the community.