Lucia Crocheron Greer

A Gravette “One of a Kind” Passes Lucia Crocheron Greer, born in Mt. Kisco, Westchester, NY, July 20, 1924, died in Gravette, AR, on September 16, 2014. Preceded in death by her parents, 3 husbands, and 3 siblings, she is survived by her daughter Crow Johnson Evans (née Amy Lucia Goodenough) and son-in-law Dr. Arthur F. Evans, II with whom she has spent her final years. Nephews and their families: Edmond Crocheron of PA, Bobby and Carla Crocheron of TX, and Peter and Barbara Massie of AR . Caregivers made an enormous difference and became family… Stacy, Tammy, Shawntel, Glenda, and dear Janet. Chia was the youngest of the four children of Edmond P. Crocheron and Lucia Rosetta Davidson Crocheron. Adventurous, creative, and musical from her early years, Chia pursued absolutely anything she wanted to pursue. Building a boat, selling newspapers disguised as a boy, learning to play flute, following her big brother around. She thought of herself as a tomboy and an alluring female intellectual. Traditional gender roles didn’t matter in her upbringing. Her father, an architect, moved the family to Houston TX while she was in high school. She proved to be exceptional in music and later studied flute at Eastman School of Music. In 1943 she married a gifted composer, Forrest Goodenough, and they had one child, a daughter. Some said she must have had gypsy blood. Nearly every April she took off without notice to “somewhere else.” In 1948 she converted a model A Ford into a camper and traveled cross-country to folk festivals. Through the years she designed and made jewelry, created sculpture, studied art, got involved in genealogy, built gypsy wagons, learned archery, lived in Greenwich Village and Woodstock, NY. She managed the private business of authors, musicians, poets, and philanthropists … designed websites and started an online literary journal…wrote a suspense novel…built a small cabin in east Texas…and rode 50 miles on the back of a Harley for her 89th birthday. When in the late 1990s glaucoma and macular degeneration caused her to become legally blind, she moved to Gravette, AR. An avid reader, she supported the Gravette Library, the Spavinaw Author’s Guild, the Jolly Good Times Club, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, Kiwanis, Lions Club, Billy V. Hall Senior Center, and the Museum. Although she couldn’t drive a car, she had a series motorcycles, and even an adult-sized Schwinn electric tricycle. The University of AR Fayetteville Architecture Department accepted, and have kept on display, a series of etchings that she donated from the Crocheron family. Away from the museums, galleries, concert halls of Houston and NYC, she found a natural richness in NW Arkansas she cherished. Chia loved and was loved by many citizens of Gravette. If she didn’t agree with someone, she would speak up and endeavor to prove her point…but if someone needed money or help, she would join with others to find a “behind the scenes” way to see it happen. A non-denominational memorial to celebrate her life will be held at the Billy V. Hall Senior Activities Center, 1870 Limekiln Road Gravette, AR 72736 (479) 787-5950 on Tuesday September 23, 2014 from 2pm to 3:00pm. Tax deductible contributions in her memory can be made to Arkansas Regional Library for the Blind, Arkansas State Library, 900 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 100 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1081 Toll free: (866) 660-0885. website https://nfb.org

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Lucia Crocheron Greer

July 20, 1924 - September 16, 2014