Longtime HGTV Host Dies

Longtime HGTV host Carol Duvall died on July 31, according to the Detroit Free Press. She was 97 years old.

Duvall was best known for doing arts and crafts on “The Carol Duvall Show,” which ran on HGTV from 1994 until 2005, per the Internet Movie Database.

While Duvall became known nationally in the ’90s, she had been on TV for more than 50 years, the Record-Eagle reported in 2017. Her first gig was hosting TV in Detroit during the ’50s, the outlet said.

“I was always interested in theater,” Duvall told the outlet at the time. “To me, it was like being on stage. When you’re doing something you love, it’s fun.”

After nearly 20 years in local television, Duvall became known nationally when she started working on “The Home Show” for ABC during the 1980s, the Record-Eagle said.

When she had “The Carol Duvall Show” on HGTV, Duvall told the Record-Eagle that she showed people “techniques” to do crafts, whether it was origami, jewelry making, polymer clay, rubber stamping, painting or needlework.

“We showed them a technique — how to make things, not just what to make,” Duvall said to the publication. “We did all levels of artistic work. Everyone thought of ideas, but I had to OK every project that went on the air.”

HGTV canceled “The Carol Duvall Show” in 2005, but it was picked up on the DIY network and ran there until 2009, per The Detroit Free Press.

Aside from being a longtime television host, Duvall also wrote two books: “Wanna Make Something Out of It?” was released in 1972 and and “Paper Crafting with Carol Duvall” was released in 2007, The Detroit Free Press reported.

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Duvall Missed Being on Television

After her TV career ended in 2009, she told the Ticker, a local Michigan news site, that she longed for the small screen.

“I’d been on TV for 56 years. Now when I meet or hear of somebody with a great craft idea, I (don’t) have any place to share it!” she said.

According to HGTV, Duvall was known for her “self-effacing humor and practical knowledge.”

While speaking to the Record-Eagle in 2017, she recalled a particular incident that made fans laugh. When actress Deborah Harmon was co-hosting with her, they accidentally transferred an image upside down, and then a display unexpectedly fell down.

“Absolutely nothing went right,” Duvall told the publication in 2017. “We got to laughing so hard we could hardly speak. I got more mail on that — people just loved it.”

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How To Remember Duvall

Fans of Duvall can remember her online by going to the Reynolds Jonkhoff Funeral Home & Cremation Services.

There’s a comment section where some people have started to share their memories of the late TV host.

Sarah Hodsdon, who described Duvall as a friend and mentor, said she “paved the way” for people like Martha Stewart.

“She was beloved by millions & there are many sad hearts in the Art & Craft Industry today,” Hodsdon tweeted on August 2, a day before the news broke.

“To the world, she was the Queen of Crafts… to me, she was one of my Grandmother’s Sisters, an ‘Aunt’ who was on tv making the things I had made on her living room floor over-looking Lake Michigan,” she added.

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