[at-l] Ms Tillie passed away [fwd from PATH]

[Linda Patton]

Forwarded message:
> From path-list-request at path-at.org  
> From: "Carla & Dave Hicks" <daveh at psknet.com>
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:35:12 -0400
> Subject: [PATH] Ms Tillie passed away
> 
> While I was hiking today I received a sad cell call from Atlanta Georgia.
> 
> I was sorry to learn that a Grand Lady of the Trail has passed -- Ms. Tillie 
> of Woods Hole Hostel (SWVA ) and Woods Hole Shelter (GA) fame is now taking 
> care of  footsore, wayward travelers in another realm.  [If not, if there 
> aren't trails to hike, if there is not Ms. Tillie maintaining a hostel there, 
> why go?]
> 
> For those who didn't have the honor of knowing her let me share a bit.
> 
> The following for the Roanoke Times is better written than I can produce.  So, 
> I just quote it.
> 
> >>
> Tillie Wood and her husband, Roy, came to the property [where Woods Hole 
> Hostel is located] in the early 1940s, when Roy was a graduate student 
> studying a nearby elk herd. Looking for a place to rent, they were shown a 
> nice, solid brick cottage and a falling-down cabin with no electricity.
> 
> "They were young and it was picturesque, so they took the cabin," said Mary Jo 
> Osteen, the Woods' daughter.  After a year in the woods, they had a chance to 
> buy the place. So they did. A cabin and 100 acres for $300. Woods Hole almost 
> left the family twice. Once, when Roy Wood was becoming assistant secretary of 
> the interior in President Jimmy Carter's administration, the investigators 
> looking into his private life told Wood he had a conflict of interest. He 
> owned land next to a national forest.
> 
> "His answer," Tillie Wood said, "was, 'No. They own land next to me. I was 
> there first.' "
> 
> The Woods kept their cabin and woods.
> 
> Years later, the couple thought about donating it to the state. When their 
> granddaughters found out, they cried. That was the end of the donation. The 
> family still holds reunions there -- more than 20 relatives were at Wood's 
> Hole last summer -- but they let other people enjoy the place too.  Just a 
> half-mile from the Appalachian Trial, Tillie Wood has run a hostel for AT 
> hikers for the past 21 summers. For two months each year, she provides hikers 
> with a bed in the bunkhouse. She cooks breakfast for the first eight people to 
> sign up.
> 
> She made an exception at least once, when a hiker tried to frighten off a bear 
> by throwing food at the animal. The hiker, who earned the nickname Bearbait, 
> came into Woods Hole without any food, without a tent and with a big hunger. 
> Tillie Wood let him have a place at the breakfast table.
> 
> <<
> 
> Last I talked to Ms Tillie she was talking  about to turn the hostel tradition 
> over to her granddaughter, Neville Harris.  I've met Neville and think she 
> might just have the spunk to continue the tradition -- but she'll have a big 
> void to fill.
> 
> dave hicks -- a.k.a. Chainsaw
> 
> PS -- I'm sending the out with most addresses in the Bcc: box -- so as to 
> avoid spreading folks Email address around too much.
> 
> PPS -- Anyone on other trail list, please feel free to spread the word.