Nancy Matchett

Nancy Valentine Matchett, beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, friend, and musician died on Saturday, August 10, 2024, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, following a brief illness. She was 73. 

Nancy was born on September 2, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois, to Chester and Jeanne Stasack. Her father was a lawyer and her mother an artist. Nancy grew up in the city of Dolton, Illinois, and subsequently attended Concordia College, graduating with a degree in music education. She later earned a master’s degree at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, where she met her husband, Andrew. Nancy and Andy began their lives together in Texas where they had three children, Gerald, Philip, and Melanie. The family relocated to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1982. Nancy taught first grade at Southern Bluffs Elementary School for many years, and then, from 2004 until her retirement in 2010, served as principal at Hamilton Elementary School. Meanwhile her husband taught - and teaches - at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. 

Music was always a focal point of Nancy’s life, starting in early childhood. She nurtured a love of classical and choral music in those around her, including some of her children. At various points in her life, Nancy was an elementary school music teacher, adult choir director, piano accompanist, and faithful singer in various choirs and ensembles, particularly UWL Choral Union. 

In the 1980s, Nancy was the Music Directer at English Lutheran Church and, in that capacity, started a handbell Choir and served as Director of the Senior ELC Choir. As a young choir director, and thinking her choir could do anything, as she put it, she had them learn Mozart’s Requiem. They rose to the challenge, caught the eye of the Music Department at UW-La Crosse, were recommended to Midwest Productions of New York City, and were invited, along with seven other distinguished church, university, and civic choirs from the Midwest to jointly perform the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall in 1988. 

In 2008, Nancy performed with La Crosse Community Theater in the play, Sound of Music. Her role was Mother Superior. After retirement from La Crosse School District, Nancy returned to ELC as Senior Choir Directer from 2016 to 2018, and when the covid emergency was over she directed the adult choir at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in La Crosse for several months. Nancy long believed that music has a special power to unite people.

Besides music, Nancy was an avid bridge player who kept accumulating master points up until the last months of her life. She excelled at scrabble. She also had a life-long interest in travel, including travel abroad. In the late 80’s she became interested in Russia, and learned to speak Russian. This opened doors to several life-long friendships and musical collaborations with people in Russia or hailing from there. She was one of the early participants in the teacher exchange program between the sister cities Dubna, Russia, and La Crosse. In the past three years it was with great sadness that Nancy contemplated the state of affairs between Russia and Ukraine. But at the same time she had hope for a return of peace and the spirit of ”glasnost,” which paved the way for musical collaborations in the 1980s and 90s. 

If you were to ask Nancy her greatest accomplishments, she would mention the Carnegie Hall performance and performing the song “Climb Every Mountain” in Sound of Music, but she placed the highest importance on her family and raising her three children. Nancy had few regrets in life and no regrets related to her children other than the questionable decision made by some of them to leave La Crosse. But on the upside, that circumstance presented an opportunity for Nancy to travel to warmer parts of the country in winter months, where she could delight in grandchildren.

Nancy found a spiritual and musical home both at English Lutheran Church in La Crosse, and at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in La Crosse. And, in secret, at Saint Monica Catholic Church in Dallas. She set aside ecumenical and liturgical questions and would say that those three institutions are in good agreement, musically speaking. 

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents, Chip and Jeanne. She is survived by her husband Andy, sister Sheila, three children, two daughtersin-law, five grandchildren and innumerable friends both in Wisconsin and abroad. Memorial services will be at English Lutheran Church, on the corner of 16-th and King in La Crosse, at 11:00 a.m., September 7, 2024.