Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Four-Leaf Clover Lady of the East Village

Yesterday afternoon, EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams saw Hildegard Ford — AKA the Four-Leaf Clover Lady of the East Village — in action in Tompkins Square Park... You've certainly seen her do this before...




... she collects the lucky clovers to hand out to police officers and firefighters for their acts of bravery... Ford has been collecting clovers since she was a girl in Germany...


You can read more about her in this feature from the Daily News from 2008.
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10 comments:

  1. MelanieApril 17, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    She is really a lovely person.

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  2. LisaApril 17, 2011 at 10:53 AM

    Amazing. 30+ year in the EV and I never knew about or saw her. What a lovely person, I will definitely be on the lookout now!

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  3. dmhApril 17, 2011 at 2:17 PM

    She began giving them to cops and firemen after her friend Firefighter John Heffernan died on 9/11. Johnny's band The Bullys still play his songs and will be at The Local 269 on Houston this Saturday.

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  4. AnonymousApril 17, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    nice to hear about someone who has a heart and carrys on like a True LES icon Better to hear about this then LES JEWELS and company

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  5. Marty WombacherApril 17, 2011 at 4:33 PM

    What a cool woman and a great story. Thanks for posting this.

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  6. LindsayApril 17, 2011 at 7:12 PM

    I love this story! Really love hearing about people like this, how beautiful

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  7. AnonymousApril 17, 2011 at 9:01 PM

    Neat. I randomly ran into her at the Astor Place Starbucks in 2007 and she gave me a couple of four-leaf clovers, which I still have!

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  8. Laura Goggin PhotographyApril 18, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    Cool, I never knew of this.

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  9. Alexander RomanovichApril 18, 2011 at 6:04 PM

    That's great. I never knew of this woman. I have long collected four-leaf clovers in Tompkins Square Park, which is an excellent spot for that. I used to enter four-leaf clover finding contests in Cape Cod when I was young. I remember placing 2nd after a guy from Montreal. The best one I've found in Tompkins Square Park is a six leaf clover, which I think I still have somewhere, pressed.

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  10. AnonymousMay 2, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    Renee said,
    I met this lovely lady by chance while working on a film in the EV. Hildegard chatted about how she noticed more of the clovers since 9/11, she's found thousands of them. They're beautifully pressed and dated and couldn't bring anything but good luck. Really gorgeous gesture on her part, handing them out in honour of city firefighters..

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