The grand lady of the Orange Blossom Opry, has passed away.
Estelle Wages Benson, 85, died Friday, Jan. 24.
She took on the Opry in Weirsdale about a dozen years ago.
The performance venue based in a Depression-era school building was gasping for life. Estelle was already well into her 70s.
The person trying to sell the business advised Estelle not to take it on.
“Nobody tells me not to do anything,” Estelle told Villages-News.com in an interview this past July.
She took over the Opry and it flourished. She had a can-do attitude, but she also ran a tight ship.
Estelle lured in big name acts like Asleep at the Wheel and the Gatlin Brothers. She brought in Grand Ole Opry classic acts like Connie Smith and Little Jimmy Dickens.
And she launched the extremely popular “jam night” which allowed local artists to take the stage with the house band.
You can view a video of a Jam night from this past summer at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJVrKqEGMF8
She would personally man the ticket window and appeared to take great pleasure in doing so.
Raised in the hardscrabble hills of Virginia, as a young lady she went all the way to California where she ran a construction business.
Estelle eventually made her way to Lady Lake where she started Estelle’s Country Kitchen which became a popular gathering spot in town. (The restaurant is now known as The Cottage in the same building on U.S. Hwy 27/441.)
At the Opry, her tradition of cooking carried on. In the oversized kitchen backstage, she cooked for all of the performers.
It was on this past Thanksgiving Day that Estelle fell, breaking her hip and arm.
She had been undergoing rehab at Freedom Pointe rehabilitation center in The Villages.
But then the Bellamy Brothers came to the Opry and Estelle just had to go.
“I think she overdid it,” said her son, Harold Wages.
Ultimately, it was a blood clot that took the life of the powerful little lady.
Fittingly, a celebration of Estelle’s life will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Orange Blossom Opry, the place she so dearly loved.
You can read her complete obituary at:
http://villages-news.com/estelle-wages-benson/