Mrs. Lucien (Freda) Wilkins 1942-2015
Cape Fear Garden Club President 1981-1983
Freda Wilkins was born in Sanford, North Carolina in 1942. She went to grade school and high school there, and when she graduated in 1960, she attended Meredith College in Raleigh where she received a degree in Home Economics and Science in 1964. She then moved to Richmond, Virginia where she wanted to go to the Medical College of Virginia to become a hospital dietitian, but she found that she needed some courses she had not taken at Meredith. Instead, she took a job teaching home economics, biology and reading as she had done what her mother said and had gotten a teaching certificate, even though her father, Dr. Hartness, had always encouraged her to study medicine since he, himself, was a high respected family doctor! When asked if she remembered anything about World War II, Freda said, “my Dad’s medical office was on the main street in Jonesboro and we lived next door. I saw convoys going through to Fort Bragg from the porch. There was also a parachute jump that landed near us”. Her father was exempt from the war for medical reasons. In the 50’s, Freda remembers a lot of talk about bomb shelters because of the communist threat. Freda’s early television memories were of the Howdy Doody Show and the Ed Sullivan Show. She said she loved the movie Phaedra which she saw with her husband, but has not been able to find it again. Reading popular fiction is also a past time, she said she likes books by John Gresham, Pat Conroy, Danielle Steel and Nicholas Sparks especially The Notebook.
When asked how she found Lucien Wilkins, Freda said she had known him since the fifth grade in Sanford. Freda said she had not moved to Richmond because Lucien was there, he just happened to be there in Medical School. She said she asked him to get her dates. During her first summer in Richmond, she got a job in the pathology lab at Medical College of Virginia which she said was interesting work, but she was also able to go to lunch with soon to be Dr. Wilkins, picnicking on the Capitol Square. In 1966, Lucien and Freda were married. The couple spent two more years in Richmond. Lucien was then drafted because it was the Vietnam War era. They were stationed in Hawaii where Dr. Wilkins was the medical officer for a naval destroyer division. Dr. Wilkins spent the first year at sea and then had a tour in Vietnam. They were in Hawaii for two years where their son was born. In 1970 the couple returned to Richmond where Dr. Wilkins spent three years in residency for gastroenterology and Freda had their daughter.
In 1973, the Wilkins’ decided to move to Wilmington with the encouragement of Dr. Daniel Gottovi whose practice Dr. Wilkins joined. One of the main reasons Lucien liked Wilmington was the fact that he could go for a sail during his lunch hour. Freda was active in the Medical Auxiliary and she became a member of the Cape Fear Garden Club. Freda was a stay at home mom who was interested in gardening and she decided joining the garden club simply made sense.
Freda is well known in the Wilmington community for her photographs. She used this talent in the garden club as the club photographer. She called herself the garden club record keeper in terms of photography. She said that sometimes during the Azalea Garden Tour, she would have to take pictures of the gardens then on the tour plus the gardens that were to be on tour the next year because they were needed for promoting the tour. Freda wonders where some of the scrapbooks with her photographs may be. Mrs. Wilkins also said that she was on the Hospitality Committee for years and that her mother’s recipe for punch became the Azalea Tour punch. She said they never knew how many people to plan for and that this punch had to be made one batch at a time. Freda said she thinks she was talked into being president for the 1981-1983 term.
Freda’s home today demonstrates what a colorful person she is. She loves beauty and she seems now to be especially interested in taking creative pictures of flowers. She had several pictures she had recently taken displayed in her family room which she says are going to be shown in a new local restaurant which will open soon. She is not in Wilmington as often as she once was because she has a new home in the mountains of North Carolina near Boone. She remarked that she had a vegetable garden and a perennial garden at the foot of the hill near her mountain home. Both she and Dr. Wilkins landscaped the garden for their mountain home and are in the process of planting a vineyard in hopes of having a winery one day. The last question Freda posed was “don’t you want to see my grandchildren?” And with that she brought out a picture of her grandson and one of the family with her youngest grandchild in her christening dress. She is a proud mother, grandmother and wife who has established herself in the community through her creative talent in gardening as well as photography.
Interview and profile completed by Carol Ellis 2009-2010 and is featured as a “Profile in the Garden” on the CFGC website as well as a slide presentation during the September 2015 club meeting.