Earl Hamner was labeled a kook for claiming he saw Will Geer's ghost

The Waltons creator said he wasn't crazy. He just felt that Grandpa's spirit "permeated the set."

Earl Hamner's poignant writing at the heart of The Waltons made him a popular graduation speaker across the country in the Seventies.

But one college president in the midwest abruptly canceled Hamner's appearance after hearing a rumor that The Waltons creator had been known to claim he felt the ghost of Grandpa actor Will Geer on the set after Geer passed away during the show's run in 1978.

"This man is some kind of kook. He sees ghosts," the president insisted, according to how Hamner told the story to the Television Academy.

For all his experience as a gifted narrator, Hamner couldn't find the words to make the college president understand his point-of-view.

"What he didn't understand and what I later tried to explain to him was that there are certain people whose personality's so great, so forceful, so unique, that they leave an imprint on where they lived," Hamner said.

"What I meant to say and what this college president simply never understood, was that Will was that kind of person. He permeated the set with his personality. With his love. With things that he did. He planted a rose garden. He planted a vegetable garden. How many people do that on a movie set?"

Geer's costar Michael Learned likened the Grandpa actor to Johnny Appleseed, saying, "Wherever he went, he planted a garden."

In his interview, The Waltons star Richard Thomas echoed a feeling of ample admiration for Geer's "larger-than-life personality." Losing him must have been incredibly tough for everybody on set, who no doubt like Hamner thought of Grandpa every time they passed by the gardens.

Hamner said that Geer was "a big, mischievous, fun-loving guy" who "didn't really portray Grandpa. He was Grandpa."

The series creator recalled how people from his Virginia hometown would come to set to take a tour and see behind the scenes of the show. It was Geer who would always make them feel most welcome.

"He'd be in his dressing room and he'd come to the door and he'd say, 'Any Virginians out there?' which is charming," Hamner added.

But perhaps Hamner's fondest memory of Grandpa happened on the day his hometown declared the first-ever Earl Hamner Day.

Geer surprised Hamner by showing up, after driving a bus from Alabama and stealing a bushel of corn from a farm along the way. When he got to the ceremony, he presented the corn to Earl with a wink, joking, "They called The Waltons corny, but I want you to know there's more corn than concrete in the country."

"Will, I adored," Hamner said decades later, clearly still touched by their special friendship.

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17 Comments

MichaelPowers 24 months ago
That college president certainly was close-minded. Isn't that the opposite of what education is all about?
kimmer 44 months ago
Loved this show so much that I showed it to my kids and my grandkids and my step kids. I own all of them and they all love them. They all want to know who gets the DVDs when I go.....lol
Hogansucks1 44 months ago
The whole premise of the Waltons was down to earth and family oriented subject matter really hits home . Family values and good ole upbringing, morals, mannerisms,principals,etc- I’m not surprised Will Geer’s spirt would have been present on the set. A lot a love and friendship on and behind the scenes!! Printed on most U.S. currency, it says, (“In God We Trust”). Does that make our beliefs as a county Kooky also ? (?). To each has their own opinion, and live and let live- I always say. I for one believe Earl Hamner’s story. ☮️ 😇
stephaniestavropoulos 45 months ago
I wonder if the kids and MIchael Learned, Ralph Waite and Ellen Corby knew Will Gear was a communist, and didn't care, but of course never mentioned that whenever they talked about him. {Like the entire cast of the Brady Bunch, knew that Robert Reed was gay, but never discussed it whenever they were interviewed.}
stephaniestavropoulos 45 months ago
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I don't think his past was hidden. It's well known that he was involved n "The Salt of the Earth in 1954, made by people on the blacklist. I think he's mentioned in Woody Guthrie's "Bound for Glory". He was at one of the Woody Guthrie memorial concerts in 1968 or 70, reciting some of Woody's words.

But I knew about the Waltons before I knew that, by a few years, I can't be certain that his infamy was known without the fame if the show.
Will Geer was Bi-sexual. Richard Thomas revealed this in an interview. Thomas called Geer the world's oldest hippie. Interesting about Salt of the Earth. He was blacklisted or on the peripheral?

I'm Greek too Stephanie. Happy Greek Easter. Christos Anesti!
chickycat 45 months ago
I love this show....loved it as a kid when it first ran.
Andybandit 45 months ago
Cool story. I really don't watch the Walton, I never liked the show.
chickycat Andybandit 45 months ago
that is too bad.
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stephaniestavropoulos 45 months ago
Wil Geer had hutzpah and balls!
CouchPotato19 44 months ago
Yeah. He's not so cute anymore. Besides, he STOLE a bushel of corn from a farm?
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