Lily McBeth, transgender teacher in N.J.

Lily McBeth, 80, a teacher whose battles with school boards in New Jersey made her a reluctant symbol of transgender rights, died Sept. 24 near her home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J.

"She was very much at peace with her life," daughter Maureen said. "She just wanted to be who she was."

Born William McBeth, she underwent sex reassignment surgery in 2005 after nine years of substitute teaching in Eagleswood Township, and sought to continue in the job.

Opposition from parents concerned about a transgender teacher led to a debate that ended with her rehiring. She later substituted in the Pinelands Regional School District as well.

The schools' 2006 decisions to keep her on were hailed as a model of tolerance and acceptance of transgender Americans. But she resigned in 2009 after getting only a handful of assignments. The schools said that they had permanent substitutes and that outside subs were called only when the permanent subs were unavailable.

Steven Goldstein, founder of the Garden State Equality rights group, said Ms. McBeth never wanted to become a symbol of anything, but became one nonetheless.

"It is so much easier to understand an issue with a human face, and Lily became the human face of transgender rights for many people," he said. "She did so much to increase understanding and awareness of transgender people just by being strong and being who she was."

Goldstein called Ms. McBeth one of the most important figures in New Jersey civil-rights history in the last two decades.

After selling a physical therapy marketing company, William McBeth moved from Bucks County to New Jersey, where he got a substitute teaching job in Eagleswood, 17 miles north of Atlantic City.

Many students were unfazed after Ms. McBeth's surgery, particularly those who remembered her as a competent teacher when she was a man.

Ms. McBeth was a ukulele player and an avid carver of wooden decoy ducks. She acted in local theater productions, sang in a church choir, and was active in a group seeking to reestablish clam populations in Barnegat Bay.

She donated her body to a medical school for research and physician training. Funeral arrangements were private, her daughter said.

In a 2009 interview with the Associated Press, Ms. McBeth said she treasured interacting with students in the classroom.

"I tried to be an example of something you might want to be when you grow up: a kind, caring person," she said.