She was Donald Trump’s pre-K and kindergarten teacher and a stock market wiz. Fund at The Trust supports biomedical research.
Edna Kameny Lavey (1928-2017)
Ira Theodore Lavey (1929-2003)
In her book, Too Much Is Never Enough, former president Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, mentions that a teacher from a private school in Queens paid several visits to the Trump family home in 1950 and 1951 to discuss young Donald’s misbehavior. That teacher at the Kew-Forest School was Edna Lavey, according to the woman who cared for her the last 16 years of her life.
After the 2016 election, Edna made no secret of how she felt about the results, said her longtime caregiver and friend, Carol Dohren, who lives in Riverhead. On November 11, 2016, Edna posted on Facebook: “I was his pre-K teacher and could not stop him from being a horrible brat. He stole money from my purse, threw sand in the sandbox on other kids, insulted people on the street, on and on.”
Edna told her caregiver: “Teachers found him incorrigible … No matter what he [Donald] did, he was never thrown out because they [his parents] made donations,” Carol recalled Edna telling her.
Edna Kameny was born in Queens in July 1928. Her father, Emil, emigrated from Russia, and her mother, Rae, grew up in New York City. Edna graduated from Richmond Hill High School and Queens College. In 1963, she married Ira Lavey, and they settled in Flushing.
Ira was born in the Bronx in June 1929 to Sonia and Mayer Lavey. They were Russian immigrants, and Meyer was a dentist. Ira served as a private in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and after his return, he held various jobs, Carol said. “The last, and most prestigious, was in the mayor’s office.”
Meanwhile, Edna taught pre-K and kindergarten at the private Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills. She started a lot of the new wave of teaching, Carol said, breaking the day into segments for art and music. “She’d give the kids drumsticks and tambourines, and they’d march around.” Everyone, that is, except Donald.
Edna also played the stock market, Carol said. “She would buy on margins, take great risks. From the time the bell rang, she was on her computer… She made millions herself.”
Edna’s older brother, Franklin Kameny, was an astronomer for the Army Map Service and one of the nation’s most prominent gay rights advocates. His crusade against discrimination began after his sexuality cost him his federal job in the 1950s. When he died in October 2011, Edna helped plan his memorial service, which also marked the 50th anniversary of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., the capital city’s first gay rights group. Franklin was a co-founder.
In 1996, Ira and Edna retired to Flanders on Long Island, where Ira was vice president of the Civic Association. He died May 28, 2003, at age 73.
After Ira died, Edna and Carol became close friends. “At first I came to her house just to cut her hair,” Carol said. “Then I went to nursing school, and when she found out I was a nurse, she asked me to take care of her. She was very frail. I brought her into my home. Her final words to me were, ‘I feel so bad for you,’ ” Carol said. “She knew he [Donald Trump] had won the election.”
Edna passed away November 25, 2017, at age 89.
The Ira and Edna Lavey Fund was established in our Long Island division to support research into the causes or treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, arthritis research or patient care, and educational programs for underprivileged children in the Riverhead School District.
