Obituary: Dr. Suzanne A.M. Stokes, 1927-2014
Stokes spent the last three decades of her life as a Mammoth Lakes resident, where, as daughter Sylvia says, “She was the first to raise her hand, and the last to put it down.” Stokes was a tireless volunteer for countless civic organizations, including the Mammoth Hospital Auxiliary, Mammoth Lakes Friends of the Library, Mammoth Lakes Lions as well as the various music societies and orchestras she played with, and as son=in-law Joe Gray observed, “She played with everybody.” She was also a fixture at many local churches where she played the handbells.
But most people do not know about the fascinating life Ms. Stokes lived up to that point.
Born in Long Beach, Calif. on Sept. 17, 1927 to Edith and Miles Ailman, she was both a passionate student and musician, choosing to play the double bass. At the age of 17, she was chosen among a field of thirty competitors to join the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. It was a pretty big deal at the time to even be chosen to audition, said Joe Gray, and she was the youngest musician at the auditions. The conductor of that orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, was revered by Suzanne and an oft-repeated name in the Stokes household for years to come.
A few years later, she continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. There she met a doctoral student, Louis Alfred Mennini, who went on to become a musical composer of some repute. The two fell in love, got married, and conceived a child, daughter Sylvia.
Within a year, however, Suzanne’s mother became worried about the health of her daughter, and did not approve of the match. She moved her to Las Vegas to obtain a divorce.
This did not stop Suzanne. Not in the least. Her daughter became her traveling partner and constant companion as she toured the country and world playing music for the Kansas City Symphony, the Houston Symphony and the Glendale Philharmonic among others. In the 1960s, she also spent a year in Florence, Italy as part of her doctoral studies in English (She had been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and ultimately obtained a PhD in English from UCLA in 1967).
In the 1960s, she met and married Sheridon Stokes, the renowned flautist who is now the head professor of woodwinds at UCLA. They were married for twenty years and had a son, Michael.
After she finished her doctorate, she spent the bulk of the next two decades working as an in-house editor for the Rand Corporation, retiring in 1986.
“She was always good at correcting somebody,” joked her daughter Sylvia, forgivable simply because she read so voraciously and knew so much.
As her marriage to Sheridon was reaching the end, she spent a year in Mammoth with her son Michael, and after the dissolution of her marriage, her retirement, and Michael’s finishing high school, she settled in Mammoth full-time.
Her daughter Sylvia, son-in-law Joe and their family followed her here in the early 1990s.
She will certainly be missed amongst her pals at the Mammoth Hospital Auxilliary. They were younger than she and kept her younger.
She was famously late to everything, in part because she was always coming from something. “She was usually 15 to 30 minutes late, carrying two or three bags in her arms,” says daughter Sylvia.
A recurring family joke was that she was going to be late to her own funeral, so even though it is scheduled for 1 p.m., “Mom probably won’t get there ‘til 1:30,” laughs daughter Sylvia.
A celebration of life for Suzanne will be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Mammoth Lakes on Saturday, January 25 at 1 p.m. with a reception to follow at the Mammoth R.V. park.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Dr. Suzanne A.M. Stokes scholarship fund c/o the Music Society of the Eastern Sierra, P.O. Box 185, Mammoth Lakes, California 93546.
Suzanne is survived by daughter Sylvia and son-in-law Joe, son Michael, three grandchildren; James Gray, Windsor Czeschin and Grace Gray, and seven grandchildren.
