Elve (Lillquist) Fathers acknowleges a round of applause from the audience at the May 27 choral concert at Ballard High School. She is joined by Ballard principal Phil Brockman and her nephew Paul Eriks. CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS.
In the middle of Ballard High School's May 27 choral concert, the full auditorium gave a standing ovation and said "Thank you, Aunt Elve" to a smiling, misty-eyed woman on stage.
Aunt Elve is Elve (Lillquist) Fathers, a 1929 Ballard High School graduate who dedicated 40 years of her life to sharing her love of music with students around the Puget Sound.
Fathers was honored with a plaque on Ballard's Music Wall of Honor for her decades as a music teacher and with a plaque on a small grand piano for the Ballard stage that her donation to the Ballard High School Foundation paid for.
The plaque on the piano reads "In sharing her love of music, this piano is a gift to the music students of Ballard High School."
Fathers graduated from the University of Washington in 1934 and started teaching in Bellevue the following year. Every Monday she would take two buses and a ferry from Ballard to Bellevue, returning to the neighborhood on the weekends.
For the next 40 years, Fathers taught music, orchestra and voice in Bellevue, Kent and Edmonds. She also coordinated music teachers in 31 schools and worked with KCTS-TV to bring televised music education into the classroom.
During the ceremony at Ballard High School, Fathers' nephew Paul Eriks asked the audience if they could all thank Aunt Elve, as she is always known. And, the audience enthusiastically obliged.
