The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
A memorial service for Tulsa native Saun Taurric Hytche, 71, an information technologies professional and a co-founder of Theatre North, was held Friday at Richardson Mortuary in Houston, Texas. The Rev. Gwen Pierre delivered the eulogy.
Ms. Hytche died from congestive heart failure December 16.
An IT technical writer, trainer and consultant, she wrote technical proposals, specifications and computer-based instructional materials for numerous companies, including IBM, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
She was born Nov. 10, 1948 to Goldman W. Jr. and Rubie Mae Davis Hytche. Her great-grandparents George Henry and Susie Washington Hitchye (the previous spelling of the family name) had migrated from historic Choctaw territory in Northport, Ala. between 1907 and 1910 to the newly formed State of Oklahoma.
A 1966 graduate of Booker T. Washington H.S., she obtained a B.A. degree in political science from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and was granted a scholarship at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France to study French, which became her second language.
Earning a master’s degree in computer science education from the University of Central Oklahoma, Ms. Hytche studied public administration and television production at California State University at Fresno and was certified in internet technologies from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
In her early adulthood she lived in Asia and Europe and later travelled throughout the Carbbean, South America and Canada. She also resided in Chicago before moving to Plano, Texas.
Politically active since age 11, she was an original member of the Kansas City Chapter of the Black Panther Party. She also held memberships in the Association of Computing Machinery, Association of Information Technology Professionals, Society for Technical Communication, the Missouri Repertory Theater and the Legal Assistance to Inmates Clinic through which she trained inmates at Leavenworth Prison in creative writing.
Marrying her strong political views with theatrical production skills acquired in Missouri, in 1976 Ms. Hytche and friends Marilyn Harris White and Johnsye Smith founded Theatre North, the first Black theater company in Tulsa.
She was a volunteer at the Oklahoma National Memorial Museum and Education Center and served as a producer at the Illinois Public Access TV. She also donated her time in various disaster and humanitarian relief as well as animal welfare projects.
Preceding her in death are her parents, brothers Goldman Warren Hytche III and George Arvella Hytche and sister Vickie Hytche.
Survivors include two brothers, Daniel Hytche of Houston and George Hytche of Omaha, Neb.; two sisters, Pastor Vanessa Hytche-Davis and Kathy Hytche, both of Omaha; goddaughter Jalene Mack of Sugar Land, Texas; beloved lifelong friends Carolyn Devine of Houston, Marilyn White of Costa Mesa, Calif., Colette Luckie of Chicago, Vern Goff of Washington, D.C. and Johnsye Andrée Smith of Harlem, N.Y.C.; and a host of other relatives and friends.
