Point Reyes Light - October 14, 2004

Inverness' Sooch Rannells dies in Oakland at 104

 By Larken Bradley

Centenarian and former Inverness resident Sooch Rannells, who helped initiate the process that led to The Light winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1979, died Tuesday, Oct. 5. She was 104 and living in an Oakland retirement home, having developed Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1969, after retiring from social work, she and her husband, architect John Rannells, moved from Washington, DC, to their vacation home in the Seahaven neighborhood of Inverness.

A child welfare worker and social activist, Mrs. Rannells in the 1970s marched for the Equal Rights Amendment. Just four years ago she participated in the Million Mom March Against Guns at Lakeside Park in Oakland. Navigating the crowds in a wheelchair, she carried a sign that read, "I Marched for the Vote, 1915. I’m Rolling Against Guns, 2000, Sooch Rannells, age 100."

Helped organize preschool

In West Marin she saw a need for preschool education and childcare. With several others, she helped launch a preschool called The Play Group, a precursor to Papermill Creek Children’s Corner in Point Reyes Station.

In January 1979, feeling The Light deserved a Pulitzer Prize for its exposé of violence and other lawbreaking by the Synanon cult, Mr. and Mrs. Rannells on their own wrote son-in-law Anthony Lewis, a Pulitzer-winning columnist with The New York Times, asking how the prizes were awarded.

Lewis picked up an entry form from Columbia University, the Pulitzer sponsor, and sent it to them. Mrs. Rannells surprised Light staff by showing up with it one mid-January day.

Origin of her name

Born in New York City on April 26, 1900, to Jewish-immigrant parents from Poland, Sarah Sher as a child was called Sooch (which rhymes with Butch), a Yiddish diminutive of Sarah. The nickname stuck. Her father, a tailor, suffered from tuberculosis and went into a sanitarium when young Sooch was two years old. Making ends meet was left to her mother, who labored as a charwoman and a masseuse in a Turkish bath.

When Sooch grew up, she earned a two-year degree in childhood education, taught elementary school for a time, and spent the rest of her working days as a social worker.

After a first marriage ended in divorce, she met John Rannells, a civil engineer and architect. They married in Paris, and at the time of his death in 1999 (at the age of 97), the couple had been married 72 years.

The Rannells celebrated their 50th anniversary in Inverness along with their two daughters and sons-in-law, each of whom had been married for 25 years the same year. Friends and family were invited to the fete with a theme to honor, "100 Years of War and Peace," her daughter Betsy Wood said. It referred to the ups and downs of marriage, she added.

Lived around the US

Mr. Rannells’ career took the couple from New York to Philadelphia and later Washington, DC, where he became chief of architecture for the Washington Metro System during its construction.

In all three locales, Mrs. Rannells was a social worker. Toward the end of her career, she led family-life-education groups and was known to lament, "Everyone wants my advice except my daughters," her daughter said.

Politically involved from an early age, she joined the Communist Party in the 1930s. She was also active in union politics. In 1982 after moving to St. Paul’s Towers in Oakland, she and her husband held gatherings of the few Democrats living there.

A violinist and music lover, she was visited weekly in her retirement home by the Threshold Choir, founded and directed by Inverness resident Kate Munger. When the a cappella group sang the song Calling All Angels, Munger said, "she would conduct us."

Munger added, "She clasped her hands to her breast as if she could see angels."

Full moon & great music

In Seahaven, each month at the time of the full moon, the Rannells invited a few friends over for dessert, and "to sit and listen to great pieces of music as the full moon rose," Munger recalled.

Mrs. Rannells and her husband were members of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin and the Tuesday Irregulars hiking group.

She was predeceased by her daughter, Linda Bullard; a brother; three sisters; as well as her husband. Mrs. Rannells is survived by her daughter, Betsy Wood of Berkeley; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27, in Berkeley Fellowship Hall, at the corner of Cedar and Bonita in Berkeley. The family has suggested that any memorial contributions be made to The Threshold Choir, Box 173, Inverness 94937.

Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Coastal Traveler