Agate Nesaule

Agate Nesaule

MADISON - Agate Nesaule, 84, of Madison, died Wednesday, June 29 at Meriter Hospital.

Agate is survived by her son, Boris Krouse (Austin, TX); and her three nieces: Anna Schwartz (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY), Katrina Schwartz (Durham, NC), and Mara Kore (Three Rivers, MI). Agate's sister Beate Kukainis and cousin Ilsa Schwartz preceded her in death.

Agate was an accomplished writer who wrote in a variety of genres: novels, literary criticism and memoir. As a novelist she wrote In Love with Jerzy Kosinski (2010) and Lost Midsummers (2018). As a literary critic, she wrote primarily about Doris Lessing and the Latvian playwright and poet, Aspazija. She was an active supporter of the Aspazija Museum in Jurmala, Latvia.

Agate will be remembered, though, long into the future for her 1995 memoir A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile. Her memoir was the winner of the 1996 American Book Award and will be republished this fall by Soho Press. A Woman in Amber recounts Agate's and her family's exile in WWII from their native Latvia to several displaced persons camps in Germany, where they experienced atrocities from both Nazis and Russians. (The current war in Ukraine was a painful reminder to Agate of these horrors). After the war, Agate and her family emigrated to Indianapolis, where her father continued his work as Lutheran minister, eventually becoming a Bishop. In the final years of her life, Agate was working on a memoir about her father, someone whom she much admired. She was also very proud of her mother, who received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University when she was 72 years old and was herself a published literary critic.

After graduation from high school, Agate went to Indiana University on a four-year Latin scholarship awarded by the Indiana Junior Classical League to the top student in a state-wide competition. While there she studied to be a medical doctor at Indiana University. Demoralized by the rampant sexism of that time in science classes, she switched her major to English and Latin, later earning a PhD at UW Madison, writing her dissertation on Doris Lessing.

A Woman in Amber ends with Agate being hired at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, where she taught English from 1963-1996. Along with her colleague and friend, Ruth Schauer, she started the Women's Studies Department in 1972.

Agate had many notable accomplishments: she was foremost an award-winning author, and in this capacity gave numerous public readings and lectures in this country and Latvia. At UW Whitewater she received the Dave Saunders award for "Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities," the College of Letters and Sciences Teaching Award, the University Research Award, and was the 2011 Winter Commencement speaker. She was also a passionate social activist for peace, especially advocating for women victimized by war. She received numerous awards for her work in this area, among them the "Voices of Courage for National Merit Award" given by the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the "Dick Ringler Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award""(Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies).

Agate had many deeply-rooted interests. First, always, was her love for her son, Boris, her nieces, her friends and colleagues. She also was a skilled gardener. Her favorite tree was the birch, which she associated with Latvia. In her backyard she had a birch with a trifurcated trunk, an auspicious sign in Latvian culture. Agate's yard was filled with a variety of flowers. On her deathbed, she implored her gardener, a dear friend of hers, to continue his care for her garden.

Agate loved reading and music. Her interests in both were eclectic. She read many current international authors, as well as classics, with special interest in Homer, Dickinson, Dostoyevsky, and Toni Morrison. She read the Psalms, in Latvian, daily. In her last years, she especially liked Scandinavian mysteries. In music, she enjoyed going to the Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra concerts, but also was enamored of Johnny Cash.

Aside from her love of relatives and friends, her abiding love was for Latvia. She maintained a close relationship to fellow Latvian/American refugees and stayed connected to the Latvian Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa. She returned to Latvia four times, each time receiving royal treatment for her literary achievements. In her final days, Agate listened repeatedly to the Latvian National Anthem from her hospital bed.

In a 2019 essay in The Capital Times - "Exile is Irreversible" - Agate wrote "I am an American citizen in love with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I am immensely grateful for all this country has given me, yet I feel I do not really belong here." Though not in the legal sense, Agate always had the benefit and the tragedy of being a dual citizen.

Agate Nesaule was a beautiful spirit who lived life to its fullest.

Upon learning of her death, a friend wrote a two-word summation: "Great Being."

A Celebration of Life is being planned for the Spring.

Please share your memories at www.cressfuneralservice.com.

Cress Center

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