1901-2002
Wihla Hutson
1901-2002
Wihla Hutson
Wihla Hutson was a lyricist, songwriter, and pianist, best known for her work on the Alfred Burt Christmas carols. She was born in 1901 in East Gary, Indiana, and moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1913. As a child she studied piano and organ privately, eventually attending the Detroit Conservatory of Music, and graduated from the College of the City of Detroit, now Wayne State University. In 1929, when she was 28 years old, Wihla became the organist at All Saints Church in Pontiac, Michigan. The pastor of the church at the time was the Rev. Bates Burt, founder of the Burt Christmas cards, and father of American jazz musician Alfred Burt. Wihla became a member of the Burt family, and was called “Aunt Wihla,” by many. She often stayed with Burts and even joined their vacations at their summer home in Marquette, Michigan. Reverend Bates Burt began the custom of sending carols in his Christmas cards when he moved to Pontiac, Michigan, to become pastor of the Episcopal Church in 1922. Rev. Burt produced both the words and music to the Burt family’s annual Christmas cards until 1942 when Al Burt began writing the music. Rev. Bates continued to write the lyrics, however, until 1948, when he died of a heart attack.
After his father’s death Al Burt took on the family’s annual Christmas cards. But his work as a trumpet player and arranger for big bands required him to travel, so Wihla mailed the lyrics for each year’s card to wherever the Burts happened to be. While Al developed the new melody, his wife Anne secured the artwork, arranged to have the cards printed, and updated the lengthy mailing list, which grew over the years expanding from 50 to 450 people. Alfred joined the Alvino Rey Orchestra in California in 1949, while his wife Anne remained in Michigan where their daughter Diane Bates Burt was born on March 8, 1950. When Al’s wife Anne was expecting, she asked Wihla Hutson to write a lyric for that year’s carol that could also be a lullaby. “Sleep, Baby Mine” was the result, and marked the beginning of the Burt-Hutson collaboration that would last until Alfred’s death in 1954. The first eight bars of “Sleep, Baby Mine” were used to announce Burt’s daughter Diane’s birth.
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In 1951, Wihla wrote “Some Children See Him,” one of the most beloved of the Burt carols. At the time of writing, the U.S. was engaged in the Korean War, and the message of the carol highlighted that love is more important than any claim of race or nationality. The carol was so beloved, that in 1995, the country of Palau issued a series of stamps honoring “Some Children See Him” and its message of tolerance. “Come, Dear Children” also was about children and reflected the happiness that Alfred Burt and his wife Anne were feeling as they settled into their first home in California’s San Fernando Valley. But in 1953, Burt was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer, and in the midst of this sorrow the Burts chose for their 1953 carol “O Hearken Ye.” Alfred was able to finish three more carols before his death including “We’ll Dress the House,”, “Caroling, Caroling,” and “The Star Carol.” “The Star Carol” graced the final Burt Christmas card in 1954, and featured Wihla Hutson’s tender lyrics. This carol was the last of Alfred Burt’s, it was completed on February 5, 1954, and Alfred Burt died on February 6, 1954
A few years after Al’s death, Wihla Hutson began to write her own Christmas carols, for which she also composed the music. Eighteen of those carols were printed in 1982, and the choir from Reverend Bates Burt’s old Pontiac parish performed some of them. In 1994, she wrote the lyrics for a melody composed by Steven SeGraves called “Away to the Piney Wood.” It carries the dedication “In memory of Alfred Burt.” Wihla eventually moved to St. Anne’s Retreat in Southfield, Michigan, and served there for many years as organist and choir director of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Southfield. She was honored by the choirs of St. David's and All Saints Episcopal Church from Pontiac in a December 2001 performance of her work. Wihla Hutson died March 24, 2002, in Southfield, Michigan, just a few days short of her 101st birthday.
Burt and Hutson’s carols live on, twelve of the carols were released in time for Christmas 1954 in an album called The Christmas Mood. The Voices of Jimmy Joyce brought out the first recording of all 15 of the Burt carols in 1964 in an album called This is Christmas: A Complete Collection of the Alfred S. Burt Carols. Artists like Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, James Taylor, and more have recorded the Burt-Hutson carols. And Alfred Burt’s daughter, Diane, leads “The Caroling Company”, in performing her father’s carols and composer Abbie Betinis, Alfred Burt’s grandniece, revived the family tradition of sending Christmas cards with an original carol in 2001 and introduces the yearly carol cards on Minnesota Public Radio.
