Governor's Heritage Award - Emilia Tutyls

Emilija Tutlys of Arlington, Washington is the sole surviving officially recognized weaver in the Lithuanian tradition. She moved to Arlington, Washington in 1980. During her childhood, Tutlys watched Lithuanian women weave their own fabric, sewing linens and clothing from the material. At the age of eleven she began learning to weave from her mother. Ms. Tutlys. In 1944 her family fled Lithuania and spent the next five years in Displaced Persons camps in Germany. Tutlys wove fabric for national costumes, which were valued especially as a precious link to a lost homeland. Reading of Tutlys’ efforts in an émigré newspaper, the Lithuanian Sisters of St. Casimir arranged to sponsor her and her family’s immigration to Chicago in 1949. Tutlys taught her skills to many younger women in the Lithuanian-American community and has kept the Lithuanian weaving tradition alive in the New World.