Anja Helina Sell

Anja Helina (Sunkomaa) Sell passed away on February 8, 2025 at age 93 at Four Winds Manor in Verona, Wisconsin. Anja's parents were Toivo Sunkomaa and Elina (Nordstrom) Sunkomaa . She was was born on November 8, 1931 in Haukipudas, Finland. She grew up during World War II and remembered bombings of her home town and being sent to a relative's home in a rural area to be safe. Anja studied music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland and economics at the Helsinki School of Economics. She met the love of her life, Vernon Sell, in 1966 when Vernon was studying for his PhD in music in Finland. They married two years later and moved to the United States. They lived for several decades in the Madison, Wisconsin area, where Vernon was the Chair of the Edgewood College Department of Music.

Vernon and Anja traveled extensively in Europe, North America, Central America and in Asia. She was an avid gardener, water color artist, reader, knitter and a dog lover. She and Vernon were active members of the Finnish American Society of Madison. The Society's Christmas parties were joyous when Vernon led sing-alongs of Finnish Christmas songs with Anja's accompaniment. Anja and Vernon shared the love of music and she was an exceptional pianist, piano teacher and musician. She researched and published several song books translating Finnish folk songs and songs from the Finnish folk poem collection Kalevala into English. Anja directed Laulupaasi (Song Stone), a group of musicians who played the Finnish national string instrument kantele and hosted several kantele workshops in Madison.

Anja and Vernon published the book Kanteletar - 64 Lyric Poems in 1999. These were poems from the Finnish folk poetry collection Kanteletar that were selected by the Finnish composer Yrjo Kilpinen for his Opus 100. This book included the original Finnish text of the Kanteletar poems, the literal English translation and the singable English version. It was published in conjunction with the Yrjo Kilpinen Symposium and the Yrjo Kilpinen Art Song Competition held in 1999 at the Edgewood College.

Vernon passed away in 2003 and Anja missed him deeply for the rest of her life. 

Anja was preceded in death by Vernon, her brother Asko Sunkomaa and her sisters Helvi Remes and Hilkka Pakarinen in Finland. She is survived by her nieces and nephews in Finland, sister in-law Audrey Cady and nieces and nephews in the United States, as well as her friends Linda Alanen, Maija Maki-Laurila, Sinikka Santala and Alan Talarczyk in Madison.

Anja will be buried next to Vernon in a private ceremony at St. John's Catholic Cemetery in Dayton Minnesota, at a later date.

Anja's friends wish to extend their deep appreciation for Anja's excellent care to the staff of Four Winds Manor nursing home in Verona and Agrace hospice in Madison.

Please share your memories of Anja by posting in her Guestbook.

Cress Funeral Service

3610 Speedway Road, Madison

(608) 238-3434