In 1949 in Santa Fe Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson married oilman E.E. Buddy Fogelson. They owned a 13,000 acre ranch along the Pecos River which is about 25 miles southeast of Santa Fe. The ranch was called Forked Lightening Ranch.
Here Greer Garson began her love affair and left her mark on New Mexico.
The Forked Lightening Ranch was a dude ranch where working cowboys could eat and sleep for $125 a week.
The ranch house was a 18 room Spanish style hacienda designed by famous Santa Fe architect John Gaw Meem.
Greer saw it as a childhood dream come true. She bought 8 purebred white shorthorn cattle from Scotland and made the Pecos ranch their home. The next year she even put them into competition at the New Mexico state fair and brought home champion ribbons for them all. Ferguson also bred cattle but bred St Gertrudis dark colored cattle.
Greer and her husband were very generous to the College of Santa Fe which at the time was called St Michaels College. They contributed over $5 million dollars to the school.
The school today has named their performance center the Greer Garson Theatre. The campus film production classrooms are now housed by the Garson Communications Center. This complex is known as one of the Southwest’s top film production complexes.
While Greer lived she acted in performances in the theatre that bears her name. She also sent bouquets of flowers to the actors on opening nights there as well as funded scholarships for students in the theatre department.The library on campus are named the Ferguson Library.
Ms. Garson’s philanthropy also was evident in selling war bonds in World War II. She led cancer fundraising drives in the Santa Fe area as well. On the ranch she organized and ran wildlife preservation, environmental and archeological campaigns.
She supported the Santa Fe Opera. She was named a deputy sheriff for the Santa Fe and Pecos posses.
There were college scholarships for underprivileged girls, funds she gave to municipal buildings in Santa Fe and sheriff’s offices that made her a very popular resident in the area.
On her birthday in the 1960’s the small village of Santa Fe would celebrate by holding a parade in her honor where she rode a fire engine waving to the crowd.
Although Furgeson and Greer loved the high altitude and fresh air of the Santa Fe area, in their later years their health did not allow them to stay. But in their deaths they left large amounts of acreage and 1.5 billion dollars to the Pecos Historical Park.
The National Park service was given the last of the Forked Lightening Ranch at Greer’s death.
This final generous gift from Greer was fitting in that it was attributing to the natural beauty the actress loved so much about the Santa Fe area.
Eileen Richardson
