Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Heutte, Florence Alford October 20, 1988
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 February 13, 2023, 10:33 am

Virginian-Pilot  October 21, 1988
 ATLANTA — Florence A. Heutte, a longtime Norfolk civic leader and active 
churchwoman who was the widow of Frederic Heutte, the founder of Norfolk Botanical 
Gardens, died Oct. 20, 1988, in her home. She was 88.
Born one of nine children in Ireland, Mrs. Heutte immigrated to Ellis Island when 
she was 20 to join an older sister, who was living in New York. 
Mrs. Heutte
worked 
briefly in the kitchen of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and then was hired by 
publisher William Randolph Hearst as a nanny for his twin sons.
Hearst later moved his sons to California and Mrs. Heutte took a housekeeping job 
in upstate New York, where she met Frederic Heutte, a native of Paris, who was 
working as a gardener.
In 1936, the Heuttes moved to Norfolk, where Mr. Heutte became superintendent of 
parks and Mrs. Heutte became involved in service organizations. She was a board 
member of the auxiliaries at DePaul Medical Center and St. Mary's Infant Home, and 
for many years was a fixture in DePaul's gift shop on Saturday mornings.
While she lived in Norfolk, Mrs. Heutte also was active in groups at St. Mary's 
Catholic Church and Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, both in Norfolk.
During World War II, she drove an ambulance for the local chapter of the American 
Red Cross and worked as a volunteer for the USO.
While Mr. Heutte was the expert, his wife also had a green thumb, growing a vast 
collection of African violets.
“She grew the inside plants and he concentrated on the outside shrubs,” said her 
daughter, Dolores Henry of Atlanta. “She acquired quite a bit of knowledge and she 
tended them like she did us. We still have a few down here."
A diminutive, white-haired woman with a cheerful disposition, she was an avid 
reader and also enjoyed knitting.
“I never knew what store-bought socks and sweaters were,” her daughter said.
A year after Mr. Heutte’s death in 1979, he was honored with the dedication of the 
Fred Heutte Center in Norfolk. His wife was a charter member of the steering 
committee of the Fred Heutte Foundation.
In 1987, Mrs. Heutte moved to Atlanta to live with her daughter.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Heutte is survived by a son, Frederic A. Heutte 
of Washington, D.C.; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday in Blessed 
Sacrament Catholic Church, Norfolk, by the Rev. Julian B. Goodman. Burial will be 
in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Norfolk. A prayer service will begin at 8 p.m. today in H. 
D. Oliver Funeral Apartments, Norfolk.
Memorial donations may be made to The Fred Heutte Center, P.O. Box 1624, Norfolk 
23501.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/norfolkcity/obits/h/heutte6562nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/vafiles/

File size: 3.3 Kb