Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 14, 1990 TAG: 9006150604
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES AND WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She has done all the painting, inside and out, for a house her husband built.
The Liles sold their interest in a gourmet restaurant, The Library, several years ago in order to concentrate on remodeling old homes.
Their airy, light-filled home on Mount Chestnut Road in Roanoke County is an example of their expertise in transforming an old farmhouse into a sleek modern dwelling.
"We'll be moving soon," Lile said.
"Rodney and I have built a new home near here. So many people had asked him to build them a new house, but all his experience was in remodeling.
"So he said we would build one for us first, to learn how. That way, if there are mistakes, we'll be the ones to live with them."
Lile, had been in several movies and on several television shows before she came to Roanoke with her husband.
After leaving show business, Lile went to an employment agency and was told she didn't have any marketable skills.
That, she said, really floored her and gave her the determination to go back to college.
With her knowledge of German and the experience she gained from teaching ballet at Hollins College, Lile decided she wanted to become a language teacher.
She majored in French at Hollins, but in 1986, when she sought a teaching job, she found she didn't have all the courses needed to meet state certification.
After several brief stints in temporary secretarial work and as assistant manager for a clothing store, she decided it would be more sensible to work with her husband, who needed help on his construction work.
"I am his girl Friday," she said. "I paint, take phone calls, keep the books, do all those odd jobs."
She said she sometimes misses show business. "I miss the opportunity of artistic venture. Artists tend to be more on the leading edge and life is not so monotonous. But this is balanced by a sense of security and comfort in my present lifestyle.
"And I enjoy the opportunity to explore and develop my inner self. It's easy to lose focus in an artistic lifestyle."
Elizabeth Lile loves to read, and intends to discipline herself to study German history.
For entertainment, she said she recently finished reading Jeanne Larsen's novel,"Silk Road," which she enjoyed immensely.
In March, Lile returned to Europe to visit family - one sister lives in Paris and the other in Munich, West Germany. Plans did not allow time to visit the Berlin Wall, but she kept up with accounts of the changes taking place since it came down.
"The situation is becoming problematic," she said.
"Because Germany did not recognize the division [by the wall], East Germans are qualified for all the social benefits that West Germans receive. There is some resentment on each side - the West Germans resent the competition for employment and benefits, and the East Germans resent the higher standard of living of those from the West.
" `Here come the barons,' they say when West Germans come into the East to do business."
The past 10 years have brought changes in Lile's life; what does she foresee for the next 10 years?
She is not sure, but she knows she will pursue her education. She may take the courses necessary for teacher certification and become a foreign-language teacher.
She sees language teaching as important, and the lack of foreign-language fluency as one of our country's problems.
the vastness of the United States, compared to the smaller countries of Europe, and the fact that so many Europeans speak English, make the necessity for foreign language less compelling for Americans, she believes. However, learning a language teaches much more than how to express yourself in words.
"To know a language helps you to know the persons - their culture, the way they think." she said. "Often we offend others unintentionally, because we do not understand the subtle differences."
Elizabeth Lile may well trade her paintbrush for a textbook.
by CNB