Jane Margaret Sakal Erickson
(1947 – 2024)
Jane Margaret Sakal Erickson, 76, of Middlesex, Vermont, died of complications from COVID/pneumonia at Central Vermont Medical Center on February 10, 2024.
Jane was born in Portchester, New York, in 1947 to Emile H. Harry Sakal and Jean Van Cleaf Sakal. The family lived briefly in Massapequa Park, Long Island, before moving to Brookside, New Jersey, in 1955, where she grew up with sisters, Laura and Suzy, and brother, Marko.
Jane graduated in 1965 from West Morris Regional High School, Chester, NJ. She attended Kentucky Wesleyan College, in Owensboro, Kentucky, for two years, then transferred to her beloved Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. She graduated from WCC with a Bachelor of Music Education degree (organ minor) in 1970. Her life was enriched by a passion for music and performing arts that defined her career in teaching and inspired other as a teacher, performer, director, and mentor for 54 more years.
In 2014, Jane and her husband Glenn moved to Middlesex, Vermont. She built a vibrant life in the community through involvement in the Onion River Chorus, Mad River Chorale, the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus, the Heart of Vermont Quilt Guild, and the Waterbury Congregational Church.
Everyone who knew Jane knew how much she loved quilting later in life – traditional pieced blocks, landscapes, thread-painted portraits, photo mosaics. Especially as her mobility became more restricted, she devoted as much time as she could to creating and gifting quilts to family and friends and to charitable enterprises. In what came to be her last community service project Jane created nearly 20 quilts in 2023, and rallied quilters across Vermont (and as far as Colorado and Florida) to make 80-plus more quilts, for donation in December 2023, to guests of the Good Samaritan Haven homeless shelter network in Barre, Vermont.
Jane was preceded in death by her parents, Emile and Jean Sakal and brother Marko Sakal. She is survived by husband Glenn; daughter Julie Erickson Bond, son-in-law John Bond, grandson Alden and granddaughter Ella; son Thomas Erickson, daughter-in-law Rime Sun, and grandson Jasper.
A funeral service will be held Saturday, March 16, at 2 p.m., at the Waterbury Congregational Church UCC, 8 N. Main Street, Waterbury, Vermont. A Celebration of Life will also be held in June at Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood, New Jersey. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Good Samaritan Haven homeless shelter network in Barre, Vermont; or the University of Vermont Medical Center Foundation designated to Pulmonary Fibrosis research.
