Past President's Column: A Tribute to Anne-Marie Katemopoulos & Leanne Weatherly-Rzepiela

BY LOU DE LA ROSA

This time of year is normally filled with a tinge of melancholy as we say goodbye at the closing of school, the end of the concert season, or the pause in church choir until next Fall. Granted, there is also great joy at the prospect of free time during the summer, but there are those people who became a regular part of our lives that we won’t see on a regular basis anymore. Thanks to social media, most of us are able to stay in virtual contact with those whose company we enjoy.

But as we know from our experience in pandemic isolation, it is that in-person connection that feeds our souls. It is what we crave as humans. We tell ourselves that we will get together in person, that we won’t lose contact. But life gets busy; weeks turn to months, and months turn into years, without our having made that one-on-one, face-to-face connection again.

And then one day we learn, all too brutally, that it’s too late.

Leanne herself touched me by writing on AMK’s Facebook wall,

I admire you so much, Anne-Marie. You are so talented and I love your energy and passion for the vocal performing arts. You will be missed by a lot of people.

Those words described Leanne as well.

At this writing, Leanne’s service has been held while Anne-Marie’s public memorial is yet to come. I am pleased to share that the Mountain View Whisman Board of Education honored Leanne’s life by renaming the 485-seat performing venue at Crittenden Middle School as the Leanne Weatherly-Rzepiela Performing Arts Center, indicating the impact that she had upon her students and the community.

On March 27, my colleague and friend of over 30 years, Anne-Marie Katemopoulos, passed away very suddenly at age 56. Then, just a month later, another colleague and friend, Leanne Weatherly-Rzepiela passed away at the age of 47. Both women were wellrespected choral music educators in the San Jose area who had a tremendous impact on their communities. Sadly, both women succumbed to cancer. Leanne fought that miserable disease valiantly over a number of years. She fought not only for herself but for her two young children. She lost her fight on April 26.

Contrary to Leanne’s protracted struggle, AnneMarie was taken from us quickly and without warning. She had just returned with her choir from a trip to Disneyland and had completed a huge concert mere weeks before her passing, completely unaware of the diagnosis to come. To say that this was a shock is an understatement. I was unable to concentrate for days and found myself endlessly scrolling through social media to share my grief with so many others across the country who were profoundly moved by AnneMarie’s life.

Aside from Facebook posts, I hadn’t seen Leanne in a number of years, exacerbated by the pandemic of course. However, I had stayed connected over the years with AMK; not only was she a close colleague (we even co-directed a choir for a year), but she taught all three of my daughters. Moreover, as she was fond of teasing, I was her teacher…at least, for a moment.

Anne-Marie and I attended the same high school in San Jose, and she was a student when I did my initial phase of student teaching at Branham High School. She had a wicked sense of humor that bubbled up when I stood in front of the band for the first time, wide-eyed and very green. It was my first time in front of ANY band. She decided she wanted to see if I was any good, so instead of playing the march, Anne-Marie played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on her clarinet. I have no idea whether I noticed (I doubt it), but when she told me years later, her Irish heritage showed itself and her eyes sparkled as she laughed her fullbody laugh.