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« on: July 24, 2010, 05:23:59 PM »
For what it's worth... a fan who helped run GH's revived fan club in the late 1970s (the club which published Shades of Grayson) told me that GH had been approached to attend some of the conventions of that time, which were I think organized by a woman named Barb who is no longer involved in fandom. Apparently GH felt very nervous about being around big crowds of enthusiastic fans and that was why she hesitated to agree and ultimately never did attend a fan event. When a dinner in GH's honor was organized in '82 (the "Grayson Gathering"), she was very particular about the length of the guest list and whittled it down until it was only about 15 people, I think.
In the original edition of the DS Almanac, they print from an interview somebody did (which I was never able to track down) where GH described doing a pub appearance alongside JF at some point in the late Sixties and how the police cordon gave way and there was this surge of screaming, semi hysterical fans towards the car where GH and JF was sitting. Grayson commented something like "I'm an old war-horse, but THAT frightened me!"
So, I personally think that if GH were around today, it's unlikely we would be seeing her at the fan conventions. I imagine her in blissful retirement, happily tending her flowers at her estate.
G.