POTOMAC, MD - Beloved wife, mother, sister, and grandmother Tamalyn Jane (Haines) Glasser, 79, of Potomac, Maryland, and a longtime former resident of Morehead, KY and Topsfield, MA, passed away peacefully on January 10th, 2025 due to complications associated with Alzheimer's Disease.

Born in Greene County, Indiana to Malcolm and Wilma (Miller) Haines on November 11th, 1945, Tammy graduated from Pike High School in Marion County, Indianapolis, IN. She loved music, singing, and playing the clarinet and piano. While in high school, she won a local radio station contest allowing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet The Beatles backstage at a concert in Indianapolis. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from Butler University in 1966 and a master's degree in English from the University of Cincinnati in 1968.

Tammy and her husband, Dr. Marc David Glasser, married in 1970 after meeting in Oxford, England during the summer of 1966. They moved to Morehead, KY in 1972 where they lived for 30 years, raising their two daughters, Deidre and Dara.

While in Kentucky, Tammy taught English at Rowan County Senior High School where her classes on such classics as Crime and Punishment and The Iliad were known to be challenging but entertaining. She also made sure that ALL her students knew their prepositions. Tammy carefully crafted letters of recommendations for her accomplished students, who were often accepted into some of the most prestigious universities in the nation. As a testament to her writing skills, admissions office staff often wrote back to compliment her on the quality of the letters she wrote. One of her students, after winning a Presidential Scholarship, invited her to accompany him to meet President Reagan in the Rose Garden in Washington, DC. In light of her strong educator skills and beloved status, she later won the honor of being selected as the Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year.

Devoted to her teaching, Tammy also loved learning. She earned a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarship at Tufts University to study the Greek language to understand better the original texts of her teachings. She earned another NEH award to study different types of intelligence at Yale University.

After a progressive, years-long illness in her 50's from an autoimmune liver disease, Tammy received the gift of new life via a liver transplant in 1999 at the University of Kentucky Hospital. This life-saving event had a profound effect on her and her family, and her full recovery to health accentuated her wonderful loving spirit and her ability to recognize joy, to laugh, and to share gratitude for others and for the blessings of life. She advocated for her fellow transplant patients and doctors by founding an organization on their behalf, the Kentucky Alliance for Transplantation, and by appearing on various media in support of this life-saving procedure.

Tammy was also a prolific writer and volunteer. She wrote many essays for one of Kentucky's statewide newspapers and continued writing for a local newspaper after moving to Massachusetts with her husband in 2001. In Massachusetts, Tammy was a devoted member of the New Meadows Garden Club and enjoyed organizing its role in the Strawberry Festival for several years. She also served as a docent at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. Tammy loved the North Shore of New England, fully embracing its foliage, antiques, gardens, beaches, art and food. Despite her Alzheimer's diagnosis, she loved her Route 1 trots with her husband by her side.

Throughout her illness leading to the transplant and the ten final years of her progressive dementia, Tammy was fortunate to be treated by expert doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. None were more helpful to her than her two long-serving caregivers: Cecilia Carpela and Lorena Vaughn. Angels.

Tammy is survived by her husband of 54 years, Marc, her brother Timothy Haines of Indianapolis, IN; daughter Deidre Duncan and her husband James of Bethesda, MD; daughter Dara Murphy and her husband Mark of Erie, PA; as well as four grandchildren, Maxwell David Murphy, Cameron Davis Murphy, Sophia Claire Duncan, and Andrew James Duncan as well as many nieces, cousins and in-laws. She is predeceased by her parents.

ARRANGEMENTS: A Graveside service for Tammy will take place at Pine Grove Cemetery in Topsfield, 8 Haverhill Rd, Topsfield, MA 01983, on Friday, January 17th, 2025 at 12 P.M.. (Noon).  A memorial service honoring Tammy's remarkable life will be held at a later date. Assisting the family with the arrangements is O'Donnell Cremations – Funerals – Celebrations, 167 Maple St., (Rte. 62) DANVERS. In lieu of flowers or gifts, her family would prefer donations to the Alzheimer's Association .

Alzheimer's Association - MA Chapter
320 Nevada Street, Suite 201, Newton MA 02460
Web: https://www.alz.org/manh