Laeta Wentworth Guerra died at the age of 69 on September 20 in her home near Daytona, Florida. She was born there in 1930 and studied organ with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Robert Baker at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She spent a considerable time in Mexico, where she accompanied her husband, first as Methodist minister, then Episcopal priest. In addition to her organist's duties, she taught grade school and achieved considerable fluency in the Spanish language. After her marriage ended in the late 1980s, Guerra moved to northwest Washington and was musician at Immaculate Conception Parish in Mount Vernon and St. Edward's Parish in Seattle. There she studied with Edward Hansen and took a second master's degree at the University of Washington where she studied choral conducting under Joan Conlon. Laeta was a woman of great compassion which found a poignance in her care of Douglas Butler as he succumbed to AIDS, alone and separated from his family. In their absence, she provided the maternal comfort and attention that was so desperately needed, both at home and in hospital. With her own failing health, she moved back to Florida, where she served several churches in the Daytona area and lived near her sister Marilyn. Services were held in memoriam at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Seattle. She was a singularly adventurous organist and left behind devoted friends who remember her "implacable, even relentless cheerfulness." They gave witness to her life, and she to theirs.
--submitted by David Calhoun and Herbert Huestis
