Agatha Sokol, Conductor's Partner For 52 Years

Theirs was a marriage made in heaven.

For 52 years, Agatha Sokol and her husband, Seattle conductor Vilem Sokol, went through life literally hand in hand - raising 10 children, as well as the several thousand musical children who got their start in Vilem's Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, where he and Agatha were beloved fixtures for 28 years.

Agatha Sokol's death Saturday (May 16) at 77 left a large gap in her family, her circle of friends and the region's music community, many of whose members grew up hanging around the Sokols' capacious home on Capitol Hill. There was always room in the house for a few more children, and Agatha Sokol kept the welcome mat out.

Never regaining her strength after a stroke a decade ago, Mrs. Sokol grew gradually weaker, tended with care by her husband.

"They were always holding hands and hugging, right up to the end," says the couple's daughter Paula. "They were so close - and he's going to miss her so much."

The Sokols met during World War II, when young Agatha Hoeschele served two years in the Army Air Forces. She met a handsome recruit in Biloxi, Miss., where both were playing the violin in a jazz band as it performed "Dance of the Spanish Onion." Vilem Sokol noticed the pretty violinist right away. He used to joke that it was "love at first downbeat."

After the war, the Sokols moved to Seattle - far from her home state of New York, where she graduated from Ithaca College and taught public-school music for two years.

In Seattle, Vilem Sokol joined the University of Washington music faculty, the couple bought a nine-bedroom house, and the children started to arrive. All of them, naturally, studied music: Mark (violin), Damian (cello and piano), Anne (violin, viola and piano), Paula (violin), Angela (cello), Rebecca (violin), Claire (cello), Mary (violin), Jenny (violin) and John (piano).

During the turbulent 1960s, after Vilem Sokol became conductor and music director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, Agatha and Vilem counseled many youths who brought their troubles to the Sokols' welcoming home.

Mrs. Sokol was supervising librarian for the Seattle Youth Symphony during her husband's 28 years on the orchestra's podium. She also served as an active participant in the Human Life of Washington organization, and she was a member of the Auxiliary Legion of Mary. Her Catholic faith was an important part of her life, and of her entire family as well; daughter Claire, a Carmelite nun, has done the liturgical preparations for Mrs. Sokol's funeral Mass. Many of the family members will participate.

In addition to her 10 children, she is survived by two sisters, Shirleye Hoeschele and Carolyn Normile, and by 19 grandchildren.

Donations in her memory may be made to Human Life of Washington, or to a charity of choice. The funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. James Cathedral, with interment to follow at Holyrood Catholic Cemetery.