Sophie Anne White Redditt

Sophie Anne White Redditt / 1926 - 2012 / Dallas, Texas
died March 31 from complications of pneumonia. Known for her keen intelligence and great wit, Sophie was from a close knit family: brother, Lloyd Jr., and mother and father, Willa Belle and Lloyd White, Sr., all of whom preceded her in death.

She grew up in Texarkana, Texas surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins. Her mother, an accomplished musician, taught her to play the piano but Sophie, realizing that she couldn't carry a piano in the Texas High School marching band, switched to the trumpet. The White families were members of the First Baptist Church where Sophie sang in the choir and her mother was the church organist. In high school she was a member of the Jerry Atkins swing band which played at local clubs, dances, and parties. She was also involved in the Girl Scouts, taught Red Cross Swimming, and at the Camp Waldemar in Texas she attended for many summers, was the bugler for morning wake-up and taps at night. Sophie attend the University of Texas, pledged the Chi Omega sorority, was a music major, and continued playing her trumpet in symphony orchestras and jazz bands. After UT, she moved to New Orleans with her family and was a Queen of one of the Krewes during Mardi Gras. On a trip to Shreveport Sophie was in the audience at a night club when the band leader recognized her, inviting her to the bandstand to play a solo. Dressed in a form fitting long red coat, borrowing a horn from a band member, she played the trumpet to a rapt audience, and to a smitten Lamar Redditt, who at the time had not met the beautiful young musician; they married later in New Orleans. Lamar was a petroleum engineer and he and Sophie traveled extensively in search of oil, spending most of their time in Ghana in West Africa, a country and place Sophie loved dearly. They were befriended by the Prime Minister of Ghana and helped him welcome Princess Margaret on a Royal visit, the then Vice President Richard Nixon and Mrs. Nixon on an official visit, and with the ceremonies when Ghana received its independence. Sophie said later that her life with Lamar was the happiest time of her life. After Lamar died from cancer Sophie returned to college, obtaining science and teaching degrees and became one of the lead teachers in the Dallas ISD Magnet School for advanced science students. An outstanding golfer, winning championships in a number of Country Clubs in East Texas, she was also the Skyline High School golf coach. Her boys, as she called them, won a number of Regional Championships under her tutelage. Sophie enjoyed snow skiing, water skiing and floating the Guadalupe River near her beloved lake house on Lake Buchanan in central Texas, where she loved hosting large groups of friends and family every summer. After retiring, she continued playing her trumpet in the Good Time Gang and Peanut Butter Jam bands at retirement homes in the Metrotex, and continued her travels around the world from Cancun to Canada, from the Bahamas and the Caribbean Islands to Hawaii, the British Isles, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Russia, making friends everywhere she went; everybody loved Sophie. Visiting a school in Moscow she met a young girl who spoke no English but loved the music of My Funny Valentine. Very patiently Sophie taught her phonetically to sing the lyrics. Sophie was a Patron of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, a former member of the Fort Worth Kimball Art Museum, The American Institute of Wine and Food, and the Dallas Fort Worth Film Critics Association. She was the co-author of a weekly syndicated movie column which appeared in a number of newspapers across the country. Sophie Anne White Redditt was a warm, kind and loving person with an enormous heart and will be greatly missed. She is survived by nephews John White and wife Peggy; Steve White and wife Connie, Lloyd White III, and Michael White; nieces Lucy Murphy and husband Brian, and Jenny Almond and husband Chris, great nieces Megan Murphy, Kathleen White and Mathew Watson, great nephews Richard White, Gregory White, Christopher White, Stephen Murphy and Alexander Almond, and a host of friends around the world.

Services will be held 2:00 P.M. Thursday, April 5th at Texarkana Funeral Home Chapel, Texas. Burial will be in Rose Hill Cemetery.

The family will receive friends 5-6:30 P.M. Wednesday, April 4th at Texarkana Funeral Home, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to a favorite charity; acknowledgments to 10717 Bushire Drive, Dallas, Texas 75229.