On Topic: Mrs. Euell Gibbons Died
Scott Brady
Post Script: Life began anew when naturalist's famous husband died
By MELISSA WOOD, The Virginian-Pilot
Š February 19, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Freda Gibbons spent 30 years nurturing her husband's
career.
Then it was her turn.
He was wild-foods author Euell Gibbons, who found celebrity with his
campy 1970s TV commercials that compared Post Grape Nuts cereal to
``wild hickory nuts.''
Freda Fryer Gibbons, who didn't mind being the folksy naturalist's
wife but didn't want to be known as his widow, died of pneumonia Feb.
3 at age 89.
She was 34, teaching school in Hawaii in 1947, when she fell for the
charming, rugged, Texas outdoorsman, once so poor he'd foraged to
survive.
After marrying, Freda encouraged him to write about natural living.
Together, they camped, lived on wild foods, experimented with recipes.
Her delicate pen sketches of plants illustrate some of Euell's books.
The couple joined the Quakers in the 1950s but Freda was also drawn to
the teachings of Edgar Cayce, founder of the Association for Research
and Enlightenment. She longed to move near the ARE's Virginia Beach
headquarters, but Euell wasn't interested.
In 1976, after Euell's death, Freda bought property at the end of 68th
Street, at the ARE's back door. She said in a newspaper interview that
she finally felt free to lead her own life.
On the lot, Freda contracted to build a 1,500-square-foot solar
dwelling, the first of its kind in the city. Workers piled 50,000
pounds of rocks at its base to hold the collected heat.
Within, the strong-minded, handsome woman with penetrating brown eyes
lived a life as spare and uncluttered as her lanky, 5-foot-8 frame,
said her friend Susan Davis.
``She was frank, honest, tactless, wonderful,'' Davis said.
Her one luxury was a baby grand piano. She paid no attention to
fashion, hung crystal prisms that danced rainbows across the floors,
subscribed to the ``Mother Earth News.''
She prayed and meditated, said friend Genny Jacobs, for hurricanes to
veer away, for peace.
There were glimpses of her whimsy, too.
Once, said Jacobs, firefighters responded to her smoke alarm for an
unknown reason. Freda stayed seated at her baby grand, playing ``Smoke
Gets in Your Eyes.''
She remained loyal to natural foods, as well. As she told a reporter
in 1979, ``The best thing to do with crabgrass is eat it instead of
paying good money to poison it.''
harvsix
"Scott Brady" <sbra...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:42738208.03031...@posting.google.com...
Euell Gibbons died as a result of liver cancer, despite all the natural
diet, herbs, & similar. I firmly believe "you don't go until it is your
time", as my father (died at age 89, the same as Mrs. Gibbons) often said.
Therefore, I'm gonna continue a reasonable diet of fries, burgers, and such
<g>. Seriously, I feel that "moderation" is the best approach in diet and
in all other affairs of life. I do eat *what I like* _but_ include a good
amount of fruits (oranges, grapes, pears, etc) and vegetables (carrots,
beans, broccoli, asparagus, etc).
Just an observation.
oaktonr...@gmail.com
Kenny McCormack
>He died of an aneurysm related to an incurable genetic condition, Marfans
>Syndrome, according to most sources.
--
"I think I understand delicate, but why do I have to wash my hands, and
be standing in cold water when doing it?"
Kaz Kylheku <k...@kylheku.com> in comp.lang.c
cairn...@aol.com
Mrs. Gibbons was mean....mean-spirited. Rather than having her desk at the front of the room, her desk was at the back.... so the children couldn't see her or know what she was doing, or when she would be walking up behind you to hit you on the head. This was her favorite punishment if you were holding your pencil in a fashion she didn't like. She would hit you with her rings, or her long with-like nails and draw blood. We all enjoyed the day my friend David, his arm in a cast, yawned and stretched just as she was coming down on his head and broke all of her fingernails.
She would give us math tests, or whatever sort of tests, just before lunch...and we were not allowed to leave the room for lunch until we had completed the test...and she would sit at the back of the room eating crunchy potato chips while we were trying to concentrate. Evil.
And her perverted tales about people being naked......this is 4th grade!! 8-9 year olds....and she is telling stories that all end with people being naked.....dear god she would be arrested and tossed in prison today!
I'm glad she had some friends and people who thought she was a decent person, none of the teachers at my school had a high opinion of her, and the parents of the children she scrared both mentally and physically were non too keen on here, which is why her teaching career at this school didn't last.
