Elizabeth often referred to her elder mentors as “big trees.” These were the treasured people who nourished and supported her in her work and in her understanding of the world. At some point, Elizabeth became one of the big trees for many others, and now has come the time for that big tree to fall and become part of the earth from whence it came. Elizabeth died at home February 27, 2022.
Elizabeth Converse Hunter was born in Boston, Massachusetts April 18,1945, while her father, the Rev. William Armstrong Hunter III, was teaching at Talladega College in Alabama, after graduating from Union Theological Seminary. Elizabeth’s mother, Edith Fisher Hunter, was a fellow Union graduate. She was a writer, editor and reporter as well as full-time mother of four.
Ibby (as she was called by family) grew up in Mansfield, Massachusetts (until she was 11) and then in Milford, New Hampshire, where she graduated from high school in 1963. In 1969, the family moved to Vermont, where they devoted themselves to the production of the family paper, The Weathersfield Weekly, published by the Hunter Press.. Both parents were committed to social justice and to the community that could be built by nurturing an engaged local paper. Elizabeth received her B.A. from Radcliffe and her M.A.T. from East Tennessee State University. She began to write for the Johnson City Press Chronicle in 1971, and moved into the Bandana community in 1976.
From 1978 to 1981, Elizabeth was editor and reporter for the Mitchell Journal, which was much admired as “the voice of our community.” Thereafter, she worked as a freelance writer for a multitude of regional publications. Over time, she was able to shift the subject of her writing more and more to what mattered to her: the natural history of our area. Elizabeth wrote the essays for three books on the Blue Ridge Parkway, work which came to focus her attention on Bandana through her interviews of Sherwin Buchanan, a neighbor who had helped to build the Parkway. These conversations engendered the “Bandana Club,” a fifteen-year long series of wintertime gatherings full of laughter and tales in Bruce and Helen McKinney’s living room.
Elizabeth wrote regularly for Blue Ridge Country magazine, from its inception in 1988 through 2014. She also wrote the text for Voices of the Valley, a 150 Year-old History of Mitchell County. Grist for all of this writing came from her curiosity about the world around her: things that she noticed in her garden, observations on hikes, bird behavior, and the raising of countless caterpillars from egg to butterfly, especially monarchs. She was a ferocious researcher as well, digging deeply into whatever the topic of the moment might be. She enjoyed sharing the craft of writing with friends, with aspiring nature writers attending the John C. Campbell Folk School, and with inmates at the Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution.
Retirement from meeting publication deadlines allowed Elizabeth to enjoy more time with the visual arts. She created many inspiring handmade journals filled with color, drawings, and writings. She was able to work out some of her sorrow for the damaged Earth by tending – exquisitely – her own garden. And, she was able to make some exhilarating expeditions to the Canadian Maritimes and Alaska. Her travels also included a visit to the monarchs’ overwintering site in Mexico, hawk watching in Virginia, and a trip to see the Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska.
The family that Elizabeth leaves behind includes her aunt “Dee” (Dorothea Hunter) of Pittsburgh, brothers Charles and Will (April Hensel) of Vermont, nephews Matthew Hunter (Daphne) of Montreal, Patrick Hunter (Laura) of Amherst, MA, and Samuel Hensel-Hunter of Barre VT, and several cousins. Along with her parents, Elizabeth was preceded in death by brother Graham Hunter and his wife Susan. Many friends, neighbors, former students and readers also mourn her death, though all have been enriched by Elizabeth’s lifelong example of curiosity, wonder and attention. She was a caring and creative person who died as she lived: courageously and on her own terms.
“I want to become moss.” proclaimed Elizabeth as she embarked on her dying journey. That, along with making rich nurturing soil, is exactly what fallen trees do.
Elizabeth felt as though she was “excellently cared for” by Hospice, and so, anyone wishing to donate money in her name can contribute to Compassionate Care Western North Carolina, 856 Georges Fork Road, Burnsville, N.C. 28714.
A picnic celebration for Bandana Club is being planned for later on in the spring.