Family, friends remember Sondra Lee Thompson

MOTE RANCH — If Sondra Lee Thompson’s life were a piece of music, it played like a masterpiece.
Although she and her husband, Dick, only have lived in the East County for less than a year, the Mote Ranch resident already has left her mark in the local musical community with her instrumental and singing talents and her passion for music.

Thompson, 66, died Jan. 30 along Whitfield Avenue a few blocks from her home after a passing pickup struck the bicycle she was riding.

“We were best friends,” Dick Thompson said. “We did almost everything together.”

Dick Thompson was a senior at Defiance College in Ohio when he first met Sondra. She was just another girl in the student organization he ran until he saw her in tears one day.

“My compassion for young children popped out big time,” Dick Thompson recalled, noting he’s the oldest of 10 children. “When I saw Sondra, she was crying her eyes out.”

Soon after that, he asked her on a date. For their first adventure together, they rode a tandem bicycle. Sondra rode in front, and Dick Thompson knew he was hooked, he said. Seven months later, in December, Dick Thompson proposed, and the couple married the following September.

That was 46 years ago.

Having grown up in a family that did not did not think she was good enough to accomplish her goals of teaching and becoming a musician, Sondra Lee Thompson rose up in the face of adversity, despite a nagging lack of confidence.

“She had this persistent drive to accomplish things,” Dick Thompson said. “The great thrill of my life with Sondra was helping her overcome her chronic concern about her abilities. (I watched her go from) a caterpillar to a butterfly. She did extraordinary things.”

For more than a decade, Sondra Thompson taught school in Ohio and Michigan before she and Dick moved to Pennsylvania, where they lived for 22 years.

Her musical career, however, blossomed when the couple moved to Pennsylvania. She took up her first love, the recorder, and began playing more publically.

Sondra pursued her love of music, developing her talents in piano, harp, the hammer dulcimer, the Irish tin whistle, the dulcimer, four kinds of recorders, hand bells and the bass flute, among other instruments, Dick Thompson said.

The couple moved to Florida just 10 months ago to be closer to family.

“We saw this as our great new adventure,” Dick Thompson said.

The Thompsons immediately found a home at Church of the Palms in Sarasota, where Sondra joined the church’s hand bell and chancel choirs.

She recently began leading the hand bell choir, directing her first performances around Christmas.

“She got into everything,” Church of the Palms’ Director of Music and Arts John Ferreira said. “In this little package of a lady was a whole bunch of talents waiting to come out. The sparkle in her eyes lit up the room (when music was being performed). She glowed when things were going well. She absolutely loved music.”
Sondra Thompson also had been involved with several recorder organizations in Sarasota — the American Recorder Society, the Earlye Musicke Grande Bande and the Unitarian Players.

“She was really one of the leaders of our (recorder) group (the Unitarian Players),” said Nancy Paxcia-Bibbins, president of the American Recorders Society. “She always went out of her way to help other members of the group.”

Friends described Sondra as a kind, giving and vivacious person with a love for music that rang loud and clear.

“She always, always had a smile,” Ferreira said. “Even if there was a troubled situation, she could take that and gently turn it upside down. By the time you were done talking to her, you were smiling. She had a great personality and was always willing to help somebody else.”

Church of the Palms will hold a Celebration of Life service at 4 p.m., Feb. 17. Another service is being scheduled for the Thompson’s church, Clarks Green United Methodist Church, in Pennsylvania, as well.