Late HGTV Crafting Queen Carol Duvall Started Creative Legacy in Michigan

She was as talented as they came and had millions of people trying their hand at those holiday crafts for years. HGTV pioneer, Carol Duvall, passed away recently at the age of 97. Her family announced that the original DIY Queen passed away in Traverse City, Michigan, the state she had called home, and made her big debut decades before.

Although Duvall became a household name across the country, it was Michigan where the MSU alum began showing everyone that they too could have some talent with a glue gun and scissors.

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Duvall began her television career on a children's show at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids in 1951. When her manager left for a Detroit station, Carol went along with him. It was there that she stayed for 18 years working a variety of positions and eventually launching her first crafting show, Here's Carol Duvall. Although Michiganders loved all her tricks of the trade tips, there was a huge audience out there just ready to jump into those early years of DIY shows.

It wasn't long until a big network came calling and Duvall joined  ABC's The Home Show in 1988. After 6 years of running the show ended, but Duvall's popularity continued with her cult-like crafter following. Duvall became the host of The Carol Duvall Show, in 1994 which ran until 2005 each day. After that, her talents found a new home at the now-dissolved DIY Network, where she took the airways until 2009.

According to reports, Carol had been living for about seven years at Cordia, a senior living center on the grounds of the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, at the time of her death.