Choir students were apt to get a nudge in the gut to show them how to breathe and sing, but it never lessened the love they felt for music teacher Beverly Severson.
The students’ feelings went so deep that many kept in touch into middle age. It wasn’t Christmas in Edmonds if a bunch of old students didn’t gather at Severson’s home to sing carols for their mentor.
One former student, who attended Edmonds Junior High School in the early 1960s, said the often traumatic early teenage years were his most enjoyable years in school.
“There was exuberance and joy in her classroom,” Jerry Capretta said. “It was a marvelous gift she gave to the children of our town.”
Severson taught choral music in the Edmonds School District for more than 20 years. She died Dec. 27 at age 87. The North Dakota native suffered a series of minor strokes early in 2004 and never fully recovered.
Back in the day, students chose electives, either band or singing. Those lucky enough to check the choral box got Severson.
Former student Kathy Olsen said Severson even taught her the Irish jig after illness kept the junior high student out of class.
“I was shy and quiet, but she helped me learn the dance,” Olsen said. “She made an example of me, saying I persevered. She is still an inspiration, 45 years later. She was a gift to me.”
Friends said Severson never lost her gallant nature or smile, even though her husband, Allen, died in 1969, and her oldest son, Jeffrey, and his wife, Shirley, were killed in a plane crash in 1979.
Another son, Elliott Severson, said his opera-loving mother could see the good in everyone, which was amazing, he said laughing, because she spent most of her time with seventh- through ninth-graders.
When he attended Edmonds Elementary School, he came home one day and told his mother there was a new black student at school. His mother insisted her son bring the youngster home to play. He said it must have looked funny, the white kid chasing the black kid around the playground saying he had to go home with him.
And Beverly Severson had patience. Elliott Severson and a buddy once decided to shoot BB guns around the neighborhood. Blasting away one day in the back yard, Beverly Severson calmly leaned out the window and told the sharpshooters that neighbors were waiting to get up from their floors whenever they were done.
Friends and family said she adored Edmonds, the theater and chocolate. Mary Kay Sneeringer, owner of Edmonds Bookshop, said she will miss her good customer.
“She loved to read everything,” Sneeringer said. “She accused me of tricking her by putting out attractive books. She was one of those people with a curious mind who noticed things about her.”
Edmonds Woodway High School music director Gail Colson was one of Severson’s students. She said Severson chased her down the school hall until she agreed to join the music class.
“She had a way of making you love music,” Colson said. “She looked at each kid as if they were the most wonderful kid on earth. Because of her, this is what I do.”
Colson said it wasn’t that she embraced her former teacher’s techniques, but strives to impart Severson’s passion for music and people.
Severson is survived by sons Bill and Elliott, and their wives Meredith and Karen, respectively, and grandchildren Cameron, Steve, Austin, Alissa and Courtney.
Planning one of her last adventures, Severson wanted the family to take a trip tracing the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She armed the family with literature, tours, Lewis and Clark Beanie Babies, and Lewis and Clark candy bars.
“Mom was a dreamer and a schemer,” Bill Severson said. “She loved to create. Mom held on to her dreams and shared them with others.”
At the first family holiday attended by Meredith Severson, when she was dating Bill, they ate Christmas dinner on fine china. Beverly Severson served wine in her expensive Waterford crystal. Meredith Severson accidentally tapped one precious glass, and the round bottom snapped off the stem. As she dissolved into tears of embarrassment, her future mother-in-law said it was no matter, they could turn the glass upside down to make a lovely bell out of it.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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