Freda Cruse Atwell

Freda Cruse Atwell (aka Freda Cruse Phillips and Freda Cruse Hardison) is a writer and photographer.
At the age of 17, Cruse left Arkansas to begin studies at the University of California, San Diego. In San Diego, she met fashion photographer Richard Avedon for whom she worked off and on from 1977 to 1985. At this time—during the shooting of In The American West—she found she was more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, leading to an interest in photography.
In 1976 Cruse married and had a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce in 1980.
During this period she met Jack D. Douglas, a UCSD sociology professor, who became her mentor. Cruse started as his research assistant but became his co-author in 1978, culminating in their 1988 book, Love, Intimacy, and Sex. Cruse graduated from UCSD with a bachelor's degree in 1980.
Her second marriage lasted from 1981–1987, with a daughter, Nikki Lee, born in 1982. Her third marriage was from 1988–2004, with a third daughter born in 1989.
Following her daughter Nikki Lee's death in 2002, Cruse Atwell formed the Nikki Lee Atwell Foundation.

• Douglas, Jack D.; Cruse Atwell, Freda; Hillebrand, John (1988). Love, Intimacy, and Sex. Newbury Park, California: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-8039-2606-6. 
• Cruse Phillips, Freda (September 21, 2008). "Response to storm shows community's true character". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved May 24, 2009. 
• Cruse Phillips, Freda (May 2009). "Don Mellon and his "Henry"". Ozarks Regional Magazine. p. 10. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2009.  CS1 maint: Unfit url (link)
• Cruse Phillips, Freda (2009). Voices of Our People: Stone County, Arkansas. Kearney, Nebraska. ISBN 978-0-9842111-0-4. 
• Cruse Phillips, Freda (2011). Places of Our People: Stone County, Arkansas. Kearney, Nebraska. ISBN 978-0-9842111-1-1. 
• Cruse Hardison, Freda (2015). Frank and Jesse James, "Friends and Family". Kearney, Nebraska ISBN 978-0-9842111-2-8

2009 Assisted in the production of Oxford American's on line debut So Lost with Dave Anderson "Pickin in Mountain View" http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2009/jul/09/solost-pickin-mountain-view/

2012 Appeared Episode #4 of Season Three of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Jesse and his team tackle one of the lesser known, but more timely of conspiracy theories: the “Ozarks” conspiracy.

2012 Created the award winning museum exhibit "Birth of the Ozarks" Calico Rock, Arkansas visit Calico Rock Museum Foundation Birth of the Ozarks occurred between 1793 when Chief John Watts (Aka John Bowles aka Duwali) applied for a passport to bring a group of Cherokee into the lands west of the Mississippi now the White and St. Francis River areas of Arkansas and the last group of mixed blood settlers arriving pre Civil War before 1850, known as Arkansas Pioneers.

2013 Exhibit "Birth of the Ozarks" placed second in the Arkansas Museum In House Exhibits

2013 Appeared in Travel Channel's premiere series America Declassified Season 1: Episode 4 Sunday Nov. 24, 2013