Moss Greene Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Franklin, NC: Moss Green, 81, passed away June 2, 2022. No public services are planned. Moffitt Family Funeral Care is honored to serve Moss's family. Ackie's Tribute On June 2, 2022, Moss Greene, my wife and best buddy for a truly wonderful 56 years passed on to “the sweet bye and bye” for a well-deserved rest. She will be dearly missed not only by me and our family but by countless friends from around the world. When we first met in 1966, Moss saved my life. At the time, I was a drunk, smoking a couple of packs of Camels a day and living the wild “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee an Actors Life for Me.” Moss took charge and turned my life around. She made me healthy, wealthy and I think a whole lot smarter, if I do say so myself. I’ll be forever grateful for her love, her wisdom, her beautiful smile and her totally outrageous sense of humor. We’ve had a lot of laughs over the years. Moss was one of the original “health nuts” ever since her older brother gave her a health food cookbook in 1958 as a high school graduation present. And right up until that day a year ago when she was rushed to the hospital for brain surgery to remove three tumors, Moss was probably one of the healthiest 80-year-old women in the world. She also shared her passion for good health freely with as many people as she could and made a positive contribution to the wellbeing of thousands of others. This past year was difficult for Moss. The surgery discovered she had multiple myeloma, a rare, incurable cancer of unknown causes. The four main risk factors are being eldery, obese, African American and male. Unfortunately, Moss had the bad luck of having one of the four. Moss was supposed to be in the hospital and rehab for two weeks. Because of post-op complications of seizures, hallucinations, total disorientation, shingles, dehydration, constipation, AFib and you name it, Moss ended up in the hospital for over two months, becoming daily angrier and more frustrated. Her oncologist finally told Moss she would have six months to live, but if she went straight into six more months of drugs, shots and radiation, her cancer might go into remission. However, it would eventually come back to kill her. In her typical straight forward way, Moss responded, “No thanks! I’m not afraid to die.” She immediately left the hospital and came home to take back control of her life. She dropped her medications, started eating healthy food again, got back on her nutritional supplement program and began at home physical therapy. It took a while, but she was eventually up on her feet with the aid of a walker, taking care of herself and ready to get back to work. Then in April on her 81st birthday, Moss fell and fractured her femur bone. Painful, brittle bones are one of the complications of multiple myeloma. We were never sure whether Moss fell and broke her bone or her bone broke and she fell. She was rushed back to the hospital for another surgery and it was downhill since then. Moss had an amazing productive life. Besides being a loving and devoted daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother and grandmother, Moss was a successful award-winning artist. She was once nominated for an Emmy award for TV production. She lost to CBS TV news anchor Walter Cronkite, but I think it was fixed. He had a lot more pull. She was also the founder and president of what was at the time the world’s largest organic food co-op on Manhattan’s upper west side. Drawing from all over the city and the tri-state area (back then health food stores were pretty rare) the co-op had thousands of members. John and Yoko, 70’s pop stars James Taylor and Carly Simon and four-time Tony Award winner Gwen Verdon were some of the more famous co-op members. Moss later wrote over 300 articles for her own online health and nutrition advice website that had over 50,000 subscribers. And before she became ill, Moss was writing a memoir of her eccentric family of artists, poets, writers, inventors, actors, dancers and musicians. Moss was also working on an historical novel set in her home state of Kentucky in the early 1800s. It was her intention that it be a best seller and made into a successful award-winning film. I never had any doubt it would come true. Moss always got what she wanted. Well, almost always. She had her share of disappointments. They may have slowed her down, but they never stopped her. She just kept on going. Moss was also an avid gardener. When we lived in NYC, she actually had a compost pile on our fire escape and the apartment was filled with dozens of plants. At the time we were flat broke busted, so most of her plants were grown from cuttings she secretly snipped off plants at Lincoln Center, Rockefeller Center and other famous New York buildings with extensive indoor plant collections. If nothing else, Moss was certainly resourceful. Back in March, 1976, our third-floor walkup was featured in New York Magazine in a special issue devoted to “Growing a Jungle in Your Own Apartment.” Our apartment was also featured in a book about low budget apartment decorating. Moss totally furnished our apartment with discards. She learned when the NYC Department of Sanitation was scheduled to pick up bulk items like furniture in ritzy neighborhoods such as the Upper East Side. We would then get up at the crack of dawn, hop in our old hippy VW bus, cruise up and down the streets of the city and beat the garbage trucks to the pick of the litter. We still have some of that old stuff. Like I said, Moss was pretty resourceful. And since we moved into our beautiful home on the Little Tennessee River in Franklin, NC, Moss planted close to 300 trees and bushes. The truth is Moss really didn’t do the planting. She chose the plants, decided where they would go and I dug the holes. What a team! A friend once described coming down our driveway in Spring when everything’s in bloom as like driving into Narnia. And, by the way, over the last 40 years she also found time to be the driving force behind our multi-million-dollar nutritional supplement business with nearly 30,000 customers in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Europe. Moss was a total workaholic and she thrived on it and wouldn’t have it any other way. Her mind was always going a mile a minute on her next project. Her last thoughts were making me promise to finish all the plans she was still working on. It’ll probably keep me busy for the next twenty years or so and I think that’s great. Moss was without a doubt the best boss I ever had, especially since she never fired me. I certainly gave her plenty of reasons. I guess she figured I had some potential once she finally got me straightened out. Moss believed the secret to a successful life was to know what you want and go for it 100% full out, accept your results good or bad with grace and appreciation and then get right back on purpose. She also believed you can get what you want in life by helping as many other people as you can to get what they want and that’s exactly what she did. May Moss rest in peace. She earned it. P.S. The funeral director apologized for not being able to pick up Moss in his inconspicuous Dodge van that was in the garage for service. He had to take her away in his great big, beautiful stretch hearse instead. Knowing Moss, I’m sure It was just part of her plan to go out in style. God, I’m going to miss her.

Tributes

Moss Greene

April 19, 1941 - June 2, 2022