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Margot Sullivan
Obituary
Margot Sullivan
Margot J. Sullivan of Saratoga died May 20 of congestive heart failure at the age of 76.
Born April 8, 1923, in New York, N.Y., Sullivan was a graduate of Shipley School, Pennsylvania and the Feagin School of Dramatics in New York. At the latter, Sullivan was a classmate of Angela Lansbury.
During World War II, Sullivan volunteered as a USO entertainer, then began traveling with various theater troupes throughout New York and New England. She and her late first husband, Mack D. Erickson, married in 1944 and moved to the Bay Area in 1946. The couple settled in Palo Alto, where Sullivan joined the Palo Alto Players. She also began training her soprano voice under Kurt Herbert Adler, then director of the San Francisco Opera. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she sang with the San Francisco Opera Chorus.
Following a move to San Jose, Sullivan became principal soloist with the Alum Rock Band and sang for Christian Science Churches in Los Gatos and Saratoga. In 1970, she began her own vocal studio, where she taught until 1997. She once estimated she taught 400 students the basics of singing.
Other theatrical credits include parts in Madama Butterfly and Lucia di Lammermoor for El Camino Opera and A Murder is Announced at the Saratoga Civic Theater. Sullivan was also the director of Project BETTE, a group dedicated to bringing music to hospitals and convalescent centers. The organization was begun by her second husband Daniel Sullivan, who died in 1996.
Survivors include daughters Margery Eriksson of Berkeley, Vanya Jackowski of Santa Cruz, Gwen Hale of Rio Linda and Karen Erickson of Los Gatos; sons Walter Erickson of Sausalito and Donald Erickson of Dana Point; 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Memorial services have been held. Donations may be made to the Margot J. Sullivan Scholarship Fund, in care of the San Jose Music Study Club, 1730 Lorenzen Ave., San Jose, 95124.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
