Beloved retired teacher, McKeesport councilwoman mourned

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
A City of McKeesport councilwoman and retired district teacher will be remembered for her dedication to her family and community.
Jamie Brewster-Filotei, a McKeesport councilwoman and recently retired McKeesport Area School District teacher, died early Tuesday morning. She was 46.
Mayor Michael Cherepko’s office confirmed her passing via a Facebook post Tuesday night.
“Jamie was a dedicated civic leader, a dynamic educator, and a loving wife, mother, daughter and sister,” the city said. “She played many roles in our community and in the hearts of those she loved, and for that, we will miss her dearly.
“The impact she had on the City of McKeesport will never be forgotten.”
Brewster-Filotei, the daughter of state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, and his wife Linda, passed away peacefully at her home following a long battle with a rare form of stage-four lung cancer, according to her lifelong best friend Melissa Piontka.
Cherepko, who is also a former MASD teacher, said that Brewster-Filotei, who he worked alongside on many city initiatives in her position as council vice president, “is a lifelong McKeesporter who dedicated every aspect of her life to our community.”
“We can think of she and her husband, Kenny, raising their own family in the community that molded them,” the mayor said Wednesday. “We can reflect on her long history of volunteer work or her time on city council. We can look back on Jamie working with generations of McKeesport Area students to guarantee they had access to a first-class education.
“No matter what area of her life we examine, we see a woman who loved the City of McKeesport and its residents. I’m proud to have served with Jamie and to call her a friend.”
Piontka said Brewster-Filotei became friends when they were kids growing up in the Christy Park neighborhood.
“We grew up together,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Our moms were best friends and they were always together so we had no choice but to become best friends,” she continued with a laugh.
“We spent so much time together. Our moms would take us on trips and to sleepovers.”
Brewster-Filotei was three years older than Piontka, and served as a role model for her.
“I always wanted to be just like her,” Piontka said. “She was such a genuinely gentle soul from the time we were kids. Everybody, every human, every animal, she showed love and compassion to.”
Piontka admiration for Brewster-Filotei carried on through high school.
“We were on the Lady Tigers playing basketball and I found that I continued to look up to her. I wanted to be the basketball player she was. I wanted to be the student she was,” Piontka said.
After graduation from MAHS, Brewster-Filotei was awarded a basketball scholarship to attend Mansfield University, where she received her teaching degrees and worked part time as a college basketball coach.
Her dream to teach led her back to MASD in 1997, when she became a fourth grade teacher. Brewster-Filotei spent some years helping to coach the girls seventh and eighth grade basketball team and worked with the high school team, according to the mayor’s office.
Piontka, who was Brewster-Filotei’s teaching partner for at least a decade said that in the early years, as she spent watching Brewster-Filotei teach at the now closed Centennial Elementary and Francis McClure Elementary, she found herself still looking up to her friend.
“As a teacher, I admired her,” Piontka said. “She was patient with every student. She had this extraordinary way of dealing with students’ problems. She really knew how to connect.”
Piontka said Brewster-Filotei talked with her a lot about her role as a councilwoman.
“She truly loved McKeesport and I really feel like her decision to take her position wasn’t because politics runs in the family,” Piontka said. “She would talk to me and tell me that she truly cared about if what she was doing was impacting children and families in the city.
“She did so much and was involved in so many things and she never expected anything back, never expected the accolades, but she has truly left her mark on the city.”
Piontka said Brewster-Filotei once told her that one of her proudest accomplishments as a councilwoman was partnering with the Burt Foster American Legion Post 361 of McKeesport to install and manage the McKeesport Veterans Banner Program.
“Jamie is irreplaceable and unforgettable. She was humble, kind, generous and funny — I mean she would have you in stitches from laughing,” Piontka said.
Hundreds of Brewster-Filotei’s former students on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning commented on the city’s Facebook post confirming Brewster-Filotei’s passing, sharing their condolences and memories of their former teacher.
“Someone so sweet! One of the best teachers in McKeesport. Rest Easy Mrs. Filotei,” Cassandra Cole’s wrote.
“My favorite teacher. R.W.G (rest with God) Jamie Brewster-Filotei condolences go out to the family you’ll be truly missed,” Gwayla Nash wrote.
State Rep. Austin Davis, a Democrat from McKeesport, an MASD alumnus and a friend of the Brewster family, wrote that he is sending his condolences to the Brewster and Filotei families.
“I had the pleasure of knowing Jamie as both a teacher and elected official,” Davis said. “She was a dedicated and caring person who will be deeply missed.”
In addition to her parents, she is survived by her husband Kenny Filotei; her children, Thomas J. and Nina G. Filotei of McKeesport; paternal grandmother, Doris Bailey of McKeesport; sisters, Jodi (Curtis) Adams of Mount Gilead, Ohio, and Jill (Jeffrey) Lape of McKeesport; father and mother-in-law, Thomas (Kathy Kovacs) Filotei of McKeesport; brother-in-law, Jaimie A. Filotei of McKeesport; nieces and nephews; and her loyal pet dog, Lily.
Private family arrangements were entrusted to Willig Funeral Home & Crematory of McKeesport. Burial will be in Mt. Vernon Cemetery.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, 5115 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232 or the Make-A-Wish Foundation, at Make-A-Wish America Gift Processing, 1702 East Highland Ave., Suite 400, Phoenix, AZ 85016.
Condolences and memories may be shared at www.willigfuneralcremationservices.com or by commenting on the city’s announcement on its Facebook page.
Her obituary appears on page A4.