Mary Monica Sheehy, a teacher at the former Good Shepherd School and clerk at the former Toledo Trust Co., died Tuesday of lung cancer at her sister's home in Millbury. She was 62.

Ms. Sheehy, of Rossford, grew up in Toledo and graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1957. She received a bachelor's degree from the former Mary Manse College.

She spent about two years in a convent in Cincinnati. The sisters there performed missionary work with impoverished people in Appalachia, including teaching young children to read.

“She'd always had very strong Christian beliefs,” her brother, Oregon Councilman Michael Sheehy, said. “I think she wanted to do something to make it a better world.”

Ms. Sheehy never took her final vows. She decided to pursue a different path and returned to Toledo, where she taught third grade at the former Good Shepherd School from 1960 to 1968. She also taught for a year at St. Joseph's School in Columbus.

“She believed that every child could learn. She tried to reach every student,” her brother said.

Ms. Sheehy then worked as a bank clerk for 18 years at Toledo Trust Co., now part of KeyBank.

Ms. Sheehy, who enjoyed reading nonfiction, was a caring person who liked to help other people. She belonged for several years to a group that visited prisoners, and she cared for two neighbors while they were undergoing chemotherapy, her sister, Sharon Materni, said.

She supported her brother in his political life. “She would put up yard signs for me on these wicked cold days,” he said. “She never asked anything in return.”

While she had no children of her own, Ms. Sheehy was very close to her many nieces and nephews, family members said.

She was a member of Good Shepherd Parish in Toledo.

Surviving are her mother, Martha; brothers, Pat, Tom, Jim, Michael, Charlie, and Bob; sisters, Ann Plummer, Sharon Materni, Kathleen Kline, and Jean Boraggina.

Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Good Shepherd Church. The body will be in the Eggleston-Meinert Funeral Home after 2 p.m. today, with a Scripture service at 4 p.m. today.

The family requests tributes to Good Shepherd Parish or Cardinal Stritch High School.

First Published February 15, 2002, 5:00 a.m.