Annie Kuebler was a key figure in organizing the Ellington Archive at the Smithsonian and wellknown to the international Ellington.
In the late 1980s, she began to volunteer in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Eventually, she was hired to work full-time to help with organising the Ellington Archive.
Eventually, Annie Kuebler moved on to the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, where she became the head archivist. At the institute, she catalogued and archived a huge collection devoted to jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, spurring a resurgence of interest in her life and music.
John E. Hasse, who was her boss at the National Museum of American History, introduced her at Ellington ’91.
Well, this is fun! Six years before I met Annie. (And at 23 minutes into the presentation, Annie shows an untitled manuscript example from the 1930s – I recognise that as a page of the score to “It’s Glory” that I put the name to a few years ago). I’ve also sent a link to this video to Annie’s daughter, Blanche, so she can see it, and she’s overjoyed to hear Annie’s voice again. We would both like to know if there are any more videos of Annie presenting at conferences? I first saw her at Leeds in 1997.