MARTHA KNIGHT

March 21, 1932 - June 2, 2021

Martha Sproul Knight was born on March 21, 1932 in Oakland, California to parents Harold Sproul, an electrical engineer and building contractor, and Sarah Patrick Sproul, a homemaker. Martha grew up in various homes in the Berkeley hills. Each year her father would complete a new home, and the family would move in. Her mother would decorate the house, apply finishing touches, and plant beautiful flowers in the yard. Then the house would go up for sale when they were ready to move to the next one. For example, Martha lived at 2 Arlington Court, 4 Arlington Court, and 6 Arlington Court in successive years of her childhood.

As a girl, Martha took ballet classes from Raoul Pause at Oakland Civic Ballet, an activity that became her passion. When she was a teenager, Raoul scaled back his workload and gave his Saturday classes to Martha. She taught the young girls at her home in the Berkeley hills in a daylight basement studio built for her by her father. During those years she created small performances for the parents.

Martha attended El Cerrito High School, where she was an honor student, and then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. Shortly after starting at Cal, she joined a sorority (Alpha Chi Omega) but continued to live at home with her parents.

Martha met her husband, John Knight, an optometry student at Cal, at a sorority/fraternity mixer at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house across the street from her sorority. John was a new pledge in the fraternity and was assigned to be doorman for the night, greeting each of the guests as they arrived. John was told that his date would be the last sorority girl to arrive. Since Martha had been teaching ballet that evening, she arrived late to the event and was John's date for dinner and dancing. They saw lots of each other while both were students at Berkeley and continued their courtship remotely after John finished optometry school and set up a practice in his hometown of Bakersfield.

In 1955, Martha graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Education and received a California Teaching Credential. She and John married on June 26th at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, and then she settled in Bakersfield with her husband.

During the first three years of their marriage, Martha taught fourth grade at Franklin School. She was known as an engaging teacher who challenged her students to excel. She resigned at the end of the third year just before the first of their three sons was born.

In these early years in Bakersfield, Martha also taught ballet classes and established the Bakersfield Ballet Theatre. When she left Franklin School, ballet became her primary occupation. Over the years, she choreographed and staged numerous ballet performances, including designing and fabricating elaborate costumes and sets.

Some of Martha's memorable ballets include: Hansel & Gretel, The Pied Piper, Rumanian Rhapsody, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Emperor's New Clothes, Slavonic Fantasy, Aladdin, The Nightingale, Fandango, Consider the Lilies, and Sleeping Beauty. But her most ambitious undertaking was “The King of Glory” in 1973 with collaborator Phil Dodson as musical director and with musicians from the Masterworks Chorale and the Kern Philharmonic Orchestra. This pageant told the story of the life of Christ in dance and music and was performed at the 3,042-seat Bakersfield Convention Center Auditorium to five sold-out audiences. Reprises of “The King of Glory” were staged in 1994 and 2001 at the Fox Theater.

Martha passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 from Alzheimer's disease. She was 89 years old. Martha was preceded in death by her son Jim Knight (wife Amee Edgar). She is survived by her loving husband of 65 years, John L. Knight, and by sons Doug Knight (wife Carlyn) and Larry Knight (wife Wendy). She also has five grandchildren, John Knight, Lindsay Knight, Chad Knight, Katie Knight Angevine, and Luke Knight, and one great grandchild, Austin Knight.

Many thanks to the excellent staff at Interim HealthCare and Hoffman Hospice who provided care for Martha in the later months of her life.

A private memorial service will be held in her remembrance.