Mary Joann Sabol

April 11, 1940~ February 19, 2025

Born in Longview, WA, Mary JoAnn (nee Siebers) Sabol Graduated Kelso High School 1958, Lower Columbia College (AA) 1960, and the University of Portland (BA) 1962, specializing in the music of George Gershwin. For her graduation thesis Mary played the Rhapsody in Blue to a full auditorium with an ensemble from the Portland Symphony.

Mary was a creative and much respected teacher of high school music and English in South Kitsap, then middle schools in Seattle, Snohomish, and Lake Washington districts. As Mary’s skill with choral and class piano instruction became known nationally, she was invited frequently to present clinics at Baldwin Piano and Organ headquarter in Cincinnati and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. It was not uncommon to hear Mary’s arrangement of a pop tune during half time at the Rose Bowl. Performing in New York City on a trip Mary organized was a never-to-be forgotten experience for a group of her piano students at Washington Middle School in central Seattle.

Mary’s skill and leadership in choral and keyboard instruction was exceeded only by her skill on horseback. Membership in several chapters of the Back Country Horsemen of America led to many close friendships and frequent trips on trails into the high Cascades on every available opportunity. If you wanted to find Mary on a summer day, look on the Billy Goat Pass trail above Winthrop or the Haney Meadows camps above Stevens Pass.

Stricken early by the effects of Mild Cognitive Impairment then Alzheimer’s Disease, Mary was cared for at home by her husband, Jim, for eight years, then by the immensely professional and caring staff at Pioneer Place Memory Haven in Tacoma whose loving attention for every resident cannot be overstated.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents Stephen A. Siebers and Bernadine Wurl Siebers, her brother Ray Siebers, her niece Chris Jenkins (Teri) and her nephew Rob Siebers (Julie).

Mary fiercely believed in God, her husband, her friends, music, and her horses both Arabian and any others that happened to need a home.

Maya Angelou said that “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” No one who knew her will forget how Mary Sabol made you feel.