Lilias Folan, a Cincinnati transplant who brought yoga to the masses in America, has died. She was 90.
Folan was known as “America’s best-known yoga teacher,” according to an IMDB synopsis of her PBS show “Lilias, Yoga and You.”
The show ran for over a decade and became one of the most successful series in the history of public television, a 1985 article from The Cincinnati Post reads.
She died on Monday, March 9, her family confirmed.
The Indian Hill resident became a household name during the 1970s. In her signature long braid and leotard, Folan gently walked millions of viewers across the country through various yoga poses during the 30-minute weekday program.
“It was not so much an exercise show as a program about overall well-being,” a Cincinnati Post article about the show reads. “She preached about the yoga gospel of inner peace and wholeness of body and soul.”
How Folan became the ‘First Lady of Yoga’
“Lilias, Yoga and You” began on WCET Channel 48, the PBS member TV station, in 1970. The Public Broadcasting System, the network for public stations like WCET, began syndicating it in 1973.
The show reached its height of popularity in 1976-77, when 190 stations across the country aired the program, according to the article.
“Lilias, Yoga and You” was cancelled in 1985, 15 years after its first broadcasting date. The reason? Because “yoga’s popularity has not extended into the 1980s,” the article reads.
Folan’s influence didn’t stop, though. She launched another show, “Lilias!” on PBS in 1987, and continued guiding lessons on TV until 1993, according to Cincinnati Magazine. She also published several books, VHS tapes and audio tapes. She had a column in The Enquirer in the ’90s.
To this day, her public Facebook profile is flooded with comments from fans who remember watching Folan as children and still carry her yoga lessons with them.
She is remembered as the “First Lady of Yoga” and the “Julia Child of Yoga,” the profile reads.
‘The most thankful person you ever met’
Folan also continued to practice what she taught long after she was on television.
The phrase “never meet your heroes” didn’t apply to Folan, her family said. “You know how there are really famous people you don’t want to meet,” her son Matthew Folan told The Enquirer. “She was the exact opposite. She was exactly the kind of person you do want to meet.”
According to Matthew and his wife, Lesley Folan, she was attentive. She appreciated the moment. She loved her kids and grandkids dearly. She was the same person in the studio as she was at home. And “she was the most thankful person you ever met,” the couple said.
“Even in her last days and hours,” Lesley said, “she remained grateful.”
Folan died at a senior center in Loveland from natural causes. She is survived by her two sons, Michael Folan, 65, and Matthew Folan, 62, and her daughters-in-law, Michele Folan and Lesley Folan, respectively.
She is also survived by her seven grandchildren: Taylor Folan, Ryan Folan, Elle Mace, Sydney Folan, Hunter Folan, Max Folan and Oliver Folan.
Her husband, Bob Folan, died in 2018 at the age of 90.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made. This story will be updated when they are announced.