Uncrowned Community Builders

Hulit Merriweather Curry was the daughter of Frank, Sr. and Carmelita Merriweather, founders of the Buffalo Criterion Press and Newspaper. She was the sister of the late Frank E., Jr. and Thrya Merriweather Charles and Barbara Merriweather Sims.

Hulit Merriweather was born in Houston, Texas. She moved with her family to Buffalo in 1925. She was a graduate of Hutchinson Central High School. She received a degree of Batchelor of Music from the University Extension Conservatory in Chicago in 1955 and a diploma in Advanced Composition in 1963. She became an Associate of the American Guild of Organists in 1955 and was awarded the Associate Certificate after passing rigorous examinations.

Hulit was an organist at Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church when she was 15 years old, a position she held for seven years. She also taught Sunday School. An outstanding organist, she was instrumental in elevating coral performance to excellence in several churches, including St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Bethel AME Church, Tabernacle Baptist Church and Calvary Baptist Church.

A born teacher, Hulit also studied and taught theory, harmony, composition, voice as well as piano, all of which she executed well. She was responsible in developing many outstanding musicians through her teaching of hundreds of children and adults. She had a gift for getting handicapped children to learn music. She was an early proponent of teaching the whole child and presented the children in annual recitals to further develop them. She taught at the Buffalo Urban League until the school was disbanded about 1940. She also appeared in recitals throughout Western New York with her husband Robert, a baritone.

She taught piano to scores of Buffalo youngsters, some of whom went on to have succeeded in a variety of professions in several states as well as locally. Many of her pupils worked professionally as church musicians, public school music teachers and leaders, concert performers, composers and conductors. Hulit was a member of the Lit-Mus Club and the Piano Teachers' Forum.

She was married to Robert S. Curry, Sr. on June 30, 1945. The couple had two children, Robert S. Jr. and Ronald W. Hulit Merriweather Curry died on August 28, 1982.

She is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.