The Ava Gardner Museum
& Ava Gardner Festival
Smithfield, NC
"The Ava Gardner Museum is home to an incredible collection including original scripts, photos, costumes, and personal effects of screen legend Ava Gardner—a true Hollywood “Cinderella” story. Experience her rise from a local country girl to one of Hollywood’s film goddesses. Born near Smithfield, Ava’s friends and co-stars included Mickey Rooney, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra, and Gregory Peck. Her grave site is located in nearby Sunset Memorial Gardens, approximately two miles from the museum."
AVA GARDNER FESTIVAL: This year's annual Ava Gardner festival is scheduled for the weekend of September 24-27. According to the Museum’s Executive Director, Angela Lawson, the inspiration for this festival is to honor Ava’s love for the creative arts. “Ava Gardner was passionate about the arts,” said Lawson. “By showcasing regional artists and musicians from Johnston County, this festival honors Ava’s passion for creative arts and her affection for her North Carolina heritage. And by using Ava's international name recognition we can expose visitors from across the US to the high-quality art, film and music that this region offers.”
Friday,
February 6
th
5pm at the History Place, Morehead City
"From
Country Girl to Public Icon: The Ava Gardner Story"
Angela Lawson and
Dr. Leroy Henderson
Two
speakers will focus on very different aspects of Ms.
Gardner's life.
Charles Darwin's grandson said of Ava that she was "the highest specimen of the human species," even as she broke the rules of polite society. Thought of as a "wild spirit" and a "goddess," she defined the untamable.
Angela Lawson, Executive Director of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield will show slides and perhaps a few movie clips, and she will share fascinating inside scoop on the starlet's early life and family in Grabtown, NC.
Our second speaker, Dr. Leroy Henderson, is a lively and entertaining speaker. He is primarily a Hemingway scholar who became intrigued with the close relationship forged after Ava and "Papa" met in Spain.