Louise Hutt

July 3, 1905 – April 4, 2013

Louise Rich Fraser Hutt was born on July 3, 1905, in an apartment on Niagara Street in the Black Rock area of Buffalo, New York.  She died on April 4, 2013, in Sun City Center, Florida, at age 107.
Her parents, Theresa Dayton and Joseph Fraser, met on the opening day of the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Louise was a direct descendant of Benjamin Barton, who came to the Niagara Frontier in 1787, was one of the founders of Lewiston, New York, and became one of the three partners who during 1805-1820 owned the portage around Niagara Falls that opened up the West to commercial traffic.
Louise attended Buffalo Public Schools Nos. 20 and 51. She was a teenager during World War I. Her aunt and uncle died within a day of each other in the Flu Epidemic of 1918.  Louise graduated from Lafayette High School in 1922. One of her favorite classmates was Fran Striker, the creator of The Lone Ranger.
Following graduation from high school, she entered the Buffalo Normal School (now Buffalo State College) to obtain an elementary teaching degree.  She joined the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and enjoyed the connections it brought for the rest of her life. She graduated in 1925 and taught first and second grade students in Buffalo Public Schools Nos. 45 and 66.  When she married in November, 1928, she was forced under the rules applicable at that time to give up her teaching career, because there were so few jobs available for single women.  She greatly enjoyed her teaching experience and always regretted that she had to give it up.
Louise married Lester Ralph Hutt, whom she had known from childhood, following his graduation from Syracuse University. They lived for 40 years in Kenmore, then a newly developing suburb north of Buffalo. Lester was President of Hutts’ Dairy, located in the Riverside area of Buffalo, and was deeply involved in community and dairy industry activities. He pioneered pasteurized and homogenized milk in the Niagara Frontier and brought Reddi-Wip to the area.
The Great Depression had a devastating impact on all commercial business and on the lives of the friends of the Hutts. Louise often said that it created the worst problems she ever encountered during her life, and accounts for the very conservative fiscal attitude of her generation.
During World War II, as Louise said, everything changed.  Hutts’ Dairy had bought a dairy store on Main Street in Williamsville, near the Bell Aircraft and Westinghouse factories. Those factories began producing products for the war effort, using three 8-hour shifts each day. At the request of the government, the dairy store was kept operating 24 hours a day in order to help feed the workers.  Louise spent 12 hours a day supervising the dairy store, delegating her home responsibilities to her 72-year old aunt who had just retired from 52 consecutive years of teaching in the Buffalo school system.
Louise was a leader in numerous community organizations. She co-chaired the fundraising drive to construct Kenmore Mercy Hospital, the first hospital in the northern suburbs of Buffalo. She was President of the Kenmore Mercy Hospital Guild, where she established the precedent that the presidency would alternate between a Catholic and a Protestant. She was Chair of the Kenmore Division of the Community Chest, President of the Alumna Chapter of her sorority, a volunteer at Buffalo General Hospital and Kenmore Mercy Hospital, and a member of the Kenmore Girl Scouts Board and the Erie County Girl Scouts Council. She chaired the first area Girl Scouts cookie drive. She became President of the Altar Guild at the Episcopal Church of the Advent and President of the Episcopal Church Home Associate Board of Managers. At the conclusion of her term on the Church Home Board, she was instrumental in combining the men’s and women’s boards into one joint board. 
Lester retired in 1966. They moved to Sun City Center, Florida. Their oldest son, Henry Robert, died in 1967 from a brain tumor at the age of 36, and Lester died seven months later, in 1968, at age 61. For the past 45 years, Louise continued to live in Sun City Center and to lead an active life.  She played golf into her 80s, swam throughout her 90s, and was still playing bridge when she was 105.  At age 90, Louise researched the family genealogy and published a 319-page autobiography titled Life is for the Living.
Louise never suffered from a chronic illness of any type and never needed surgery. She died of natural causes in Sun City Center on April 4, 2013.  She led an exemplary life and has been an inspiration for those fortunate to know her. 
Louise leaves two children, Peter Barton Hutt of Washington, D.C., and Sally Nelson of Portland, Maine; eleven grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. 
Contributions in her memory may be made to the Louise R. Hutt Altar Guild Fund at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 1015 Del Webb East, Sun City Center, Florida, 33573.