Kathryn Jarvis, a popular Latin teacher at West Springfield High School, died last week after a 16-year battle with breast cancer.

Her students, family and colleagues said she displayed unrelenting quiet courage to the end. To them she was unassuming, always going the extra mile and turning the spotlight away from herself to her students.

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And many of her students never knew how sick she really was. During many daily lunch breaks, she would endure chemotherapy sessions and then return to school to finish her classes.

"She was a born instructor, a born teacher," said her husband, Allen. "Once the school year started, her personality changed. She would get this energy, and she'd always want to be at school."

"I get teary eyed now at the letters that came in from students at the end of the year telling her about how much she meant to them," Allen Jarvis said. "That she had that remarkable talent is amazing. I never thought to do that with any of my teachers when I was a student."

At last Friday night's homecoming game, an event usually saturated with celebration, the night instead began with a moment of silence. At halftime, students wearing purple and white togas carried a banner in memory of Jarvis. As they walked past the bleachers, shouts of "We love you Mrs. Jarvis!" rang out and were accompanied by cheers and applause.

Tiffany Ip and Andrew Furth were two of Jarvis' students in the procession. Ip was her student for four years.

"Magistra was the nicest person in the world," she said referring to Jarvis with the Latin word for teacher.

Furth, a junior who was in Jarvis' class for two years, said, "She helped me so much. She's the reason I continued taking Latin. The way she taught made me appreciate the language more, made me want to learn it."

Jarvis had stopped teaching only two weeks ago.

"What a teacher," West Springfield Principal David Smith said. "There are people out there who, 70 years from now, when they look back on influential people in their lives, will remember Kathy Jarvis."

A full-time teacher at West Springfield since 1988, Jarvis, 58, was essentially a one-person program, Smith said.

"Latin is not in high demand like Spanish or French," Smith said. "She was a remarkable woman and a truly unique person. Even when she was in this heavy duty chemotherapy, she would joke with me about who had less hair."

Jarvis would have had three classes on the day she died, Tuesday, Oct. 17. Smith spoke to each class.

"Professionally, working with those kids kept her going," he said. "She probably lived longer because of those kids than if she had been an accountant or somebody who sat at a desk. She thrived off of them."

Jeanne Burnes subbed for Jarvis while she was sick last year and has now replaced her as the Latin teacher.

"You could watch Magistra teach, and you would never think she was sick or tired," Burnes said. "When she got up in front of the board with the chalk in her hand, she would make things sing."

Burnes wiped away tears as she spoke of her colleague, adding that "the only two things she would talk about were her family and this family here at school. I'm very fortunate to have known her."

Burnes is planning a school-wide Saturnalia, a party named after the god Saturn, in Jarvis' honor before the Christmas holiday.

Jarvis and her husband married in 1968.

"I was an Army captain when I married her," Allen Jarvis said.

The couple have three children, Allen-John, Joel and Julie, and four grandchildren.

"Kathy grew up in Massachusetts, and our parents had homes on Cape Cod. We were childhood sweethearts," Allen Jarvis said. "She is my personal hero, my number one love, now and for the rest of my life."

Up until the end, Jarvis was with her students, even as her husband called 911 just days before her death as she began taking a turn for the worse.

"I had her sit up, and, while we were waiting for an ambulance, I heard a knock at the door. I opened it, and this young girl asked if this was Magistra's house," Allen Jarvis recalled.

"I said it was, and she said she knew Kathy wasn't feeling well and asked if it was OK to say hi. I asked Kathy, and she said it was all right and when this little girl went in to talk with her they both lit up and started talking," Allen Jarvis said, pausing. "I don't even know who the girl was."

The Jarvis family has asked those wishing to send flowers instead to send money to West Springfield High School in the name of the Kathy Jarvis Memorial Fund.

Her family hopes, as were her wishes, that with both the donated proceeds and the revenues of the Saturnalia to give a $500 to $1,000 scholarship each year for the next four years to a worthy Latin student that needs financial assistance.

Jarvis' wake will be held at Everly Funeral Home in Fairfax Friday, Oct. 27, from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 7 p.m. The memorial service will begin at 7 p.m. She will be interred Nov. 9 at Arlington National Cemetery.