Madeleine Sone, Ardent Environmentalist, 1929-2016

Madeleine Sone was a force of nature, and a force for nature.

Born Madeleine Agnes Driessen in The Netherlands in 1929, her father was the owner of Driessen Chocolate, a well-known brand. She lived through World War II at her family home, which was taken over and occupied by Germans. At age 22, she married Carolus Mennicke, an older professor of 63 who had survived imprisonment in a concentration camp for his opposition to the Nazis. In her later years, Madeleine often referred to Carolus as the great love of her life.

When Carolus died, Madeleine emigrated to the United States. She lived in the vibrant artist community in Greenwich Village in New York City, later moving to Los Angeles, and finally settling in the Bay Area.

In the mid-1970s she returned from a trip to India with a strong vision of starting an intentional community. She purchased 35 acres of beautiful Sonoma County property in the west county, replete with pastures, hills and a redwood canyon. She named the community Nityananda Farm, after the guru to whom she was a devotee.

Although it did not survive as a community, the project gradually developed into what will now be called The Madeleine Sone Wildlife Preserve.

Madeleine always had a love of nature, and believed that it was possible for humans and nature to harmoniously coexist. Her motto was “Wildlife First,” and over the last three decades she developed many ponds on the Preserve, rightly believing that they would attract and sustain wildlife. She also created a Loop Trail that meanders through the pastures and the forest, and invited the public to share and enjoy the beauty she wished to preserve forever. She placed an environmental easement on the property to ensure that it would never be logged or developed, and to protect the adjoining creeks. In 2000 she was honored as a Sonoma County Elder Earthkeeper by the Sonoma County Earth Elders.

Madeleine was an accomplished artist, and painted dozens of beautiful paintings mostly in the abstract impressionism style. She was also an accomplished organ and piano player, and owned and often played her own pipe organ. Bach and Debussy were among her favorite composers.

Madeleine is preceded in death by her last husband Charles Forrest Sone; and is survived by her sister Helen Driessen, who lives in Venezuela; her son Ilya Sone and daughter-in-law Kim Sone; her granddaughter Addisen Sone; and her long-time friend Michael Wills.

Madeleine entrusted the care and preservation of her legacy to the Madeleine Sone Wildlife Preserve, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation she helped create. The purpose of the corporation is to manage and care for the Preserve in perpetuity with the values that Madeleine espoused.

Those wishing to make donations in Madeleine’s memory can send checks payable to the Madeleine Sone Wildlife Preserve to: Sone Preserve, PO Box 628, Graton, CA 95444.

You may download Madeleine’s short autobiography here: A Change of Awareness.