Greenfield teachers/sisters retire

By Editor | June 16, 2026 |

A retirement ceremony was held recently at Walnut Hall Estates for two Greenfield Elementary teachers who retired with more than 50 years of service to the Greenfield School District. What’s more, the two ladies just happen to be sisters. Becky Bishop, left, retired having spent 34 years with the Greenfield School District, while her sister, Sandy Pembrook, right, retired with 22 years of service to the district. Prior to becoming a teacher, however, Pembrook spent 20 years as a nurse. (Carmen Ensinger/River County News)

By Carmen Ensinger

Greenfield Elementary School lost over half a century of knowledge and dedication with the retirement of two much-loved teachers at the end of this school year.
A retirement party was held on Sunday, June 7, for Sandy Pembrook and Becky Bishop, who just happen to be sisters.
Pembrook is the older of the two sisters by four years. She graduated from Greenfield High School in 1982 and then entered the nursing profession, obtaining her nursing degree from Lewis and Clark Community College.
Though she became a nurse, Pembrook said she always wanted to be a teacher.
“When I got out of high school, I wanted to go into teaching, but, coming from a large family, we didn’t have much money for me to go to four years of college,” she said. “So, I knew I had to do something. Someone had said to me, ‘you would make a good nurse,’ so I went to college two years and became a nurse.”
She got married, had three children and worked for 20 years as a nurse, but the desire to be a teacher never left her.
“Thankfully, I had a supportive husband who told me to go back to school and do what I wanted,” she said. “So, I went back to school for a year and a half and got my teaching degree – all the while working my way through.”
Then, it was time to give up nursing and devote her time to teaching. In those 22 years at Greenfield Elementary, she spent 18 years teaching second grade, two years teaching fourth grade, one year teaching third grade and one year teaching first grade.
Asked which of the two careers she liked best, Pembrook said she liked nursing, but LOVED teaching.
Her plans after retirement are to help her husband Mick on their farm and spend time with her family, including her three children and nine grandchildren, and travel. If she has time, she just might work a little more as well.
Becky Bishop had a much more straightforward career spending her entire 34-year career at Greenfield Elementary.
“I spent 33 of those years teaching kindergarten,” Bishop said. “I did teach first grade for one year in the middle of my career though.”
But when she wasn’t teaching kids their ABC’s and how to count, she could be found performing extracurricular duties.
“I probably spent a total of 12 years coaching throughout my 34 years,” she said. “Over the years, I coached junior high track, pee wee volleyball and junior high and high school cheerleading.”
She and her husband Dan have raised four children and are the proud grandparents of eight grandchildren.
Retirement doesn’t mean Bishop is going to be a stranger to the Greenfield School District.
“I hope to stay involved with the school and students in some capacity,” she said. “I also want to spend some more time with my family now that I am retired.”