Honoring Charlemaud Curtis

APRIL 1, 2018

Honorary Board Member Charlemaud Curtis, 95, passed away on March 15, 2018. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dr. Charles A. and Maude A. Curtis. Survivors include nephews, Curtis Miller and Sid Miller; nieces, Gwendolyn Harrison and Marilyn Babers; and their families. Charlemaud was born in Albuquerque, NM on September 18, 1922 and was a lifelong resident. She graduated in 1940 from Albuquerque High School and obtained a Bachelor's in Education from the University of New Mexico in 1946. She loved music, played the piano, sang in local choirs, and spent a summer in New York City studying at the Julliard School of Music.
In the early 1950s, she started a sheet music store, Music Mart, which she sold several years later. She worked over 35 years as a music librarian at the UNM Fine Arts Library. She also traveled the countryside and taped a variety of music performances and interviews that have been archived under the "Charlemaud Curtis Collection of Southwestern Music, Interviews, and Programs." She spent the final years of her career cataloging and preserving the musical heritage of renowned composer John Donald Robb, who had donated a vast collection of folk music, recordings, compositions, and papers to the UNM Fine Arts Library, established as the Archive of Southwestern Music.
Charlemaud loved Albuquerque and New Mexico and enjoyed traveling the state especially with her friend, Dr. Clyde Tomlin. Always eager to share her knowledge, she taught music to Native Americans and was happy to share history of the Southwest. She loved painting, gardening, reading, listening to music, and had love for all animals, especially her beloved dogs and cats.
 
Published in Albuquerque Journal on Mar. 20, 2018

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