Lucia Crocheron Greer

A Gravette "One of a Kind" passes Lucia Crocheron Greer, born in Mount Kisco, Westchester, N.Y., July 20, 1924, died in Gravette, Ark., on Sept. 16, 2014. Preceded in death by her parents, three husbands and three siblings, she is survived by her daughter, Crow Johnson Evans (nee 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 Pennsylvania, Bobby and Carla Crocheron of Texas, and Peter and Barbara Massie of Arkansas. 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, Texas, 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, N.Y. 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, Ark. 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 of motorcycles and even an adult-sized Schwinn electric tricycle. The University of Arkansas 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 Northwest 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 nondenominational 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, Sept. 23, 2014, from 2 to 3 p.m. 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, AR 72201-1081, toll free 866-660-0885, website https://nfb.org.