“While Molly Sasse French held her ‘dream job’ as executive director of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, she was a strong advocate for all arts in Chattanooga,” writes Barry Courter in Wednesday’s (10/12) Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Sasse French died early Tuesday after a lengthy battle with cancer.” Born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., to John and Kathryn Womack, she received a bachelor’s degree in music from Centre College in Kentucky and a master’s in arts administration from Indiana University. In 1988 she married James Sasse, who died in 2012. Sasse French was “active for many years with [Chattanooga’s] arts advocacy and fundraising organization Allied Arts, now ArtsBuild, before becoming interim executive director of the CSO in 2007. She was named to the position full time the next year and resigned for health reasons in January. ‘I am deeply saddened by Molly’s death,’ said music director emeritus Robert Bernhardt.… ‘She played a significant role for decades in the cultural life of our city.’ ” Survivors include her husband, Gaylord French, and “two children from her first marriage, Mary Coulter of Knoxville and Dave Teague of Chattanooga.” The Chattanooga Symphony’s October 20 Masterworks concert will be dedicated to her memory.
October 13, 2016
