Obituary of Jane S. Course

The middle of five sisters who were known in Marion, Kansas as “the Socolofsky girls,” Betty Jane Socolofsky was born February 16, 1921. Ella V. (Popp) and Alex E. Socolofsky, first generation Americans in rural, Depression-era Kansas, did whatever it took to make sure the girls were well cared for, always well dressed, and all five sent to college. Truly an extraordinary feat.  Jane received piano lessons and played Sousaphone in the Marion High School band (“because it was free”), and was the accompanist for the District’s choir programs, thus avoiding four years of P.E.! She was elected Carnival Queen as a junior at Marion High School, a precursor of things to come.

At Emporia State Teachers College, she was a Music and English major, accompanied soloists and choirs, played Sousaphone in the marching band, and was constantly in the public eye. This lead, in part, to one of the most influential moments in her life, when she was elected Homecoming Queen. She was instilled with enormous joy and confidence her whole life from this event. This was, of course, second only to becoming engaged to William Benjamin “Bennie” Course of Abilene, Kansas.

While Bennie was a Captain in the Army Air Corp during WWII, she taught high school music in Elkhart, Kansas (“a brief stroll from the Oklahoma panhandle”), then worked at Jenkins Music in Kansas City, while rooming with her nursing student sister, June. Jane was the iTunes of her day. If you wanted to hear a piece of sheet music, you handed it to her, she stepped up on a small stage, sat down at the piano, and sight-read whatever you wanted to hear.

While Ben was on leave, Jane and Ben were married June 3, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan. After Ben survived flying 130 missions, and then completing his music degree at Emporia, they moved to Effingham, Kansas. There she taught English, and he taught all of the music groups at Atchison County Community High School. Following five years of brutally cold winters in a house with no hot water and one small source of heat, Jane declared that she would “never be cold again.” So, they moved, with six-year-old Bill in tow, to Southern California. Ben became the manager of the Arcadia Music Mart, which began a social whirlwind of many years for them both with Rotary, Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, The Maestros, PEO, and countless business friends from the area.

A few years after the sale of the Music Mart, at age 70, Jane got her real estate broker’s license. Over the next 10 years, it is probable that she sold a home to every PEO sister in the San Gabriel Valley.

In 2000, Jane and Ben moved to Olympia, Washington, where she continued her PEO activities, started a book club, created “Music, Music” (a listening group), a Social Committee for the Sorrento HOA, and was active in Newcomers Club. She also enjoyed playing piano duets with her two granddaughters and never missed their concerts. She made many new friends in Olympia and stayed active well into her 90s.

Jane passed away December 1, 2019 in Olympia at age 98.

Our thanks to Joyce Dickenson and her staff at Quality Care Adult Family Home for giving Jane dignity, care, comfort and a cheerful environment during her last months.

Jane was pre-deceased by her husband, Ben Course, and her daughter, Leticia Course. She is survived by her son, Bill Course and daughter-in-law, Marie; and her two granddaughters, Amanda Misbe and husband Eric Misbe, and Meredith Course and husband Nick Clute-Reinig.

Jane embraced, in broad terms, Eastern philosophies of spirituality and afterlife, and requested no services be held. She will be interred in Marion, Kansas, next to Ben.

 

 

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