All About Ava

"Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl's values," Ava Gardner (1922–1990) wrote in her autobiography, “Ava: My Story.” “Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Born in the small Johnston County community of Grabtown, just outside of Smithfield, Ava Gardner lived that iconic Hollywood star life, but never forgot her roots. Named as one of the top 25 female legends by the American Film Institute, her tobacco farm upbringing served her well in the rough and tumble world of movie making, taking off with her breakout role as femme fatale Kitty Collins in the 1946 film “The Killers.” Many of her hit movies had a connection to home, including when she played Julie LaVerne in the 1951 film “Showboat,” which is based on North Carolina author Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel. Her role as Maria Vargas in the 1954 film “The Barefoot Contessa” almost mirrored her own life, as a peasant girl discovered for stardom.

Ava never forgot where she came from, often visiting family and friends throughout Johnston County. Her community most certainly never forgot Ava.

The Ava Gardner musuem in Smithfield, NC, at night.

The Ava Gardner Museum and Festival

Dr. Thomas Banks became a lifelong friend of the soon-to-be legend from what started as a joke by his 12-year-old self and ended in a kiss on the cheek from college student Ava. That fateful day, according to Ava Gardner Museum history, young Tommy shouted out “Hey, Girlfriend!” to Ava while she stood around with friends. She surprised him by chasing the young man down and planting one on him in front of his friends, a moment that would never be forgotten. Over the years, he watched as Ava began her film career and stardom. He collected newspaper articles and saved autographed photos, letters and memorabilia that she would send through their lifelong correspondence.

Thomas’ wife, Lorraine, joined him in adding to his collection and also became friends with Ava. The couple even visited her in London, where the discussion of donating their vast memorabilia collection for an exhibit about “the hometown girl makes good” began. Ava Gardner agreed with Thomas and Lorraine’s plans to exhibit the ever-growing collection.

The quest to showcase Ava in her home state of North Carolina took off in the early 1970s, when Doris Cannon, a writer for the Smithfield Herald, began a campaign to honor Ava Gardner in Smithfield. The team formed when Thomas contacted the newspaper looking for Ava photos for his collection.

A temporary exhibit honoring Ava opened in 1979, with a more permanent home for the collection found in 1981 at the old Brogden School Teacherage building, where Ava had attended school (and where Thomas Banks and Ava first met). In 1985, Ava visited the family farm in Grabtown. She and her sisters drove to the Teacherage building, hoping to visit the exhibit, but the building was not yet open, and she declined to bother someone to unlock the door, noting “I know what’s in there, I lived it.”

Thomas passed in 1989. His wife scattered some of his ashes at the Teacherage in honor of all his hard work to create the Ava Gardner Museum. In 1990, Lorraine agreed to donate the Banks collection to the city of Smithfield with the opening of the permanent museum. Finally, in October 2000, a renovated 6,400-square-foot building in downtown Smithfield opened as the Ava Gardner Museum. In 2007, the annual Ava Gardner Festival began on the first weekend of October to commemorate the museum’s opening.

Each year, the festival showcases exhibits, heritage tours, guest speakers and film screenings of Ava Gardner’s movies. For 2024, new exhibits will feature additional movie costumes, and a showcase called “Archiving Ava,” which will display some of Ava’s personal belongings and keepsakes she kept from her 44-year Hollywood career. This year’s festival includes the showing of “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” at the local amphitheater and “Mogambo” at the Howell Theater, as well as a discussion at the museum theater with Film Historian Rob Davis on 100 years of filmmaking. On the festival’s final day, the museum will present the premiere of the “Ava Gardner Centennial Documentary Short.”

The Ava Gardner Mural created by JEKS.

The museum’s memorabilia collection continues to grow, with film scripts and posters, lobby cards, Gardner family and personal artifacts, portraits, costumes and other items honoring the life and career of one of Hollywood’s greatest stars. In 2022, the Ava Gardner Mural on the side of the museum was unveiled, created by Greensboro graffiti artist/muralist Brian Lewis, aka JEKS (see his Andy Griffith mural in our August 2024 issue.

The mural overlooks a rose garden — yellow roses were a particular favorite of Ava’s. After their divorce, her third husband, Frank Sinatra, sent her a bouquet of yellow roses every year on her birthday. Although he didn’t attend her funeral in 1990, he did send one final bouquet, along with a note that read, “All my love, Francis.”

Ava’s gravesite is located just two miles from the museum in Sunset Memorial Park, not far from the tobacco farm she once called home.