Tasha Tudor

Tasha Tudor
Marlboro, Vermont (AFP) - When author Tasha Tudor's ashes were finally buried, it was not in one place. With survivors of wrangling could not agree on when, where and how, and that a judge ordered her burned remains divided into two halves.

On Oct. 17, and was buried the sons of Seth Thomas Tudor, Tudor, daughters, Bethany Tudor Efner Theodore Holmes under some Rosebush she loved in her garden, and the rest of Seth and adjacent property, where her precious Pembroke Welsh corgi dogs were already buried.

"(Seth) got the ashes, and went abroad and has given us half of the ashes and went to the property and scattered the ashes scattered or buried there, and we have," said Thomas Tudor, 64. "It was really unpleasant situation."

We call war Tudors: After nearly two years of the children in his famous author and painter, died at 92, a battle rages to $ 2 million for real estate - turning against brother or sister or brother or sister in the bombing of her legacy assets with the court litigation and sullying eccentric artist's name.

On this issue: the family grievances old and new, including whether Theodore unwarranted when rewrote her will to give almost everything - including the dolls now on loan to Colonial Williams - for Seth Tudor (67 years), her eldest son.

"If you did not do anything soon, you will get all of the lawyers it, and this is what I think," said Bethany Tudor (69 years), the eldest daughter.

Corgiville has never been like this.

Beginning with "Pumpkin Moonshine" in 1938, gained fame Theodore photo carefully drawn, watercolor show, "Little Women",''The Secret Garden "and dozens of children and other books for her" Corgiville fair "and" The Great Corgiville kidnapping. "

Works have celebrated the holidays, family, and her love for children, and return to the basics of life and a strong little dogs she loved so much.

Tudor, who was fond of saying that she would like if she was born in 1830, lived most of his life as if it had been obtained.

And calico - Rose went barefoot and dressed in linen, linen weave her own, raised Nubian goats for milk, she lived her days in a replica of the late 18th century New England farm, replete with antique utensils and small windows - a kind of Victorian era Martha Stewart.

Born in Boston Brahmins, Theodore leave school after eighth grade, married twice and raised her children, which is part of the time and one from the mother. Royalties from her illustrated edition of "Mother Goose" helped her to buy a rambling, 17-room Webster, New Hampshire, a farm, where he lived with the family, no television, no radio and - for years - no electricity, only oil lamps.

"I remember a strong hatred of isolation and being different from other people, and the desire to play with neighborhood children, but they were miles away," said Tudor Thomas, now a U.S. Air Force lawyer who lives in Fairfax Station, Virginia

"I did not like to wear woolen or get hair cut from my parents, but we certainly Soliloquized with nature. We want to go down to the river, floating on rafts down a little cake at night, with candles burning on them."

All four children went to boarding schools; Theodore do not trust the public schools.

Theodore lived in a fantasy world, Holmes said (61 years), who cut off communication with her mother in 1996.

"It's okay when I was a child, and you have doll parties have puppet shows and all things wonderful fantasy did. My friends envied me," said Holmes, who lives in Contoocook, New Hampshire "But when you grow up and have a parent who refuses to speak to you completely on the issues of real life, it's a problem. "

Family and simplicity at the heart of the name of Theodore, an image central to its work. Fans all around the world - particularly in Japan and Korea - have bought books over the years, and then visited its Web site, including the burning took $ 165 per person tours of her Vermont home, built by hand their children in the 1970s.

But the battle is real estate is suffering from a rupture in the fabric of the homespun image since June 18, 2008, death from complications of stroke.

Theodore in 2001 will be required to be buried with her dogs and ash predeceased her pet rooster Chickahominy, and should die before her. He left the bulk of his estate for Seth Tudor, Marlboro, and his son, Winslow Theodore, but had left $ 1,000 for each of his two daughters, but nothing of the cupboard antique Theodore Thomas - because of "a break" from her.

And gave her a set of clothes century 19th - Colonial Williams Foundation. Officials there declined to comment on this article; Seth Theodore lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Theodore Thomas is challenging the validity of the will, and his brother, standing and undue influence on the mother, causing her to cut them from an earlier version. Court filings in the commandment, Seth Theodore denies this.

Now, lawyers for the brothers at odds over the extent of Tudor in assets, and more fighting until the smallest details, including who was responsible for a bill of $ 140 for snowplowing narrow, unpaved road that leads to the complex, Theodore, Theodore, where Seth and his family are still alive.

"There is not only financial considerations that revolve family members against each other, but they even get to such relatively simple issues such as how, when and whether the cremains will be buried late Tasha Tudor, who could attend, what can be said, when it will be done , "said Richard Gall, log Marlboro commandment of the Court. "They fight everything."

At the same time, Bethany Tudor, who says her mother and promised royalties for her books once and for her death, and wonders if they will see anything from ever. Living alone in a mobile home in nearby Brattleboro, which rely on food stamps to get by as they await word on whether they are eligible for low-income housing.

She'd been estranged from her mother since 2000, when it sold Theodore unpublished book "Hitty Calendar," which her mother had given her when she was 16. Bethany Tudor, who has one daughter, and calls her mother and two-faced eccentric who ignored advice to put her assets in trust for heirs quad.

"Of course I'm angry at her and said," Bethany Tudor recently over a cup of coffee at dinner near her home in Park trailer. "But what can I do? No sense in making yourself sick over it. I do not even think about it anymore, so it's outrageous. A kind, loving mother would not let that happen."

Thomas Tudor, who has five children, says he was not happy estranged, and to maintain close contact with his mother until her death. His brother is accused of hatching a plan 10 years to disinherit him. The legal battle is happening now, he says, can be bled dry of the estate.

Next, the court would schedule a deposition Amelia will provide, to Ada, Ohio, a close friend of the author and one of the lawyers you think may shed some light on the intention in writing the will. As it is now, and preside over the case for trial.

Tasha Tudor what would make of all this?

"Frankly, I think they want to smile," said Thomas Tudor. "This is what it wanted, and she wants to debate, and beat me. I did not do it for my children."