03/31/2026
A small glimpse of the extraordinary woman behind the name everyone asks us about.
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She was born Carolyn Gale Kidd in Rochester, New York, in the early years of the twentieth century โ the eldest of five children in a family that summered in Tryon. Everyone who knew her called her Elettra.
She trained at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and spent her life making things: oil paintings, hand-woven textiles, and sweaters so intricate they carried pictorial scenes. She competed horses with the Genesee Valley Hunt. After her divorce, she moved to Taormina, Sicily, became fluent in Italian, and sold her knitting to tourists. She spent time in Granada before political unrest sent her home.
When she landed in Tryon, she designed her own house on Hogback Mountain. She called herself an architect. No one who saw what she built thought to argue.
She opened Elettra's restaurant on Trade Street, with its Blue Grotto Pub, and ran it with unmistakable flair. She was a magnificent cook and a generous host โ the kind whose parties people talked about for years. In 1984 she bought 68 acres above Lake Lanier in Landrum, created Song Hill, and designed and built three residences on the land. A fire in 2004 took everything she'd built last โ artwork, heirlooms, things that couldn't be replaced. She escaped with her life.
Song Hill endures. It's now run as an event center by one of her granddaughters.
Elettra Kidd was flamboyant, self-possessed, and wholly original. Tryon was where she chose to be.
๐๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ?
