Eleanor Coolidge

1943 - 2025

Northfield - Eleanor Coolidge, age 81, of Northfield, passed away on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Northfield.

Eleanor was born in Washington D.C. on September 15, 1943, the only daughter of Walter MacClaskey and Mildred Marritz MacClaskey. The family moved to Riverside, CA where she grew up. A talented musician, Eleanor began piano lessons at age 4 and started her first job as a church organist at the age of 13. She attended Occidental College where she met Fletcher Coolidge; they were married on September 14, 1963, and subsequently moved to Salt Lake City, UT where their two children were born. After another move to Wisconsin, Eleanor attended Alverno College where she studied organ with Sister Theophane Hytrek and piano with James Norden. She graduated from Alverno with honors and a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education in 1985.

After graduation, Eleanor taught music at a series of Catholic grade schools (St. John Vianney, Brother Dutton, St. Peter, and Our Lady of the Assumption) in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, where she was known for her outstanding children's choirs. In addition to teaching music, Eleanor was a gifted and generous accompanist for generations of grade school, middle school, and high school students, as well as for both the Southern Lakes Masterpiece Chorale and the Janesville Choral Union in southern Wisconsin. She was a founding member of the piano trio Trio d'Amis, which performed professionally for thirty years. Her career as a church organist continued for most of her life, playing for a wide variety of churches in California, Utah, and Wisconsin. She was the organist for St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Fontana, WI for 25 years and finished her career at Holy Communion Episcopal Church in Lake Geneva, WI.

Eleanor's other passion was the fiber arts. She was a weaver, spinner, and knitter for more than sixty years. She taught weaving in Utah and Wisconsin. She continually looked for opportunities to enhance her skills and took classes annually at the Sievers School of Fiber Arts for more than twenty years. When Fletcher and Eleanor moved to Northfield, MN in 2017 Eleanor joined the Friday knitting group at Northfield Yarns and was a founding member of FiberSpace Northfield where she also taught weaving. Eleanor was courageous, talented, funny, and opinionated, a gifted teacher who loved animals, making music, and gardening, and she will be sorely missed.

Eleanor is survived by her husband of 61 years, Fletcher Coolidge; her son Austin Robinson-Coolidge (Sara) and grandchildren Alex and Julia; her daughter Grace Coolidge (Jason Crouthamel) and grandson Max; brother-in-law David Coolidge; and sister-in-law Nancy Coolidge.

Memorial donations may be made to: North Shore Animal League, Port Washington, NY (https://www.animalleague.org/) or Best Friends Save Them All, Kanab, UT (https://bestfriends.org/).

A memorial service will be held at 2 PM, Friday, May 30, 2025, at All Saints Episcopal Church in Northfield. Father Cody Maynus will be officiating. A visitation will be held one hour prior to the service and a reception will follow, both at the church.

www.northfieldfuneral.com