Freida Claxton

Freida Claxton is the main antagonist of "It's A Miserable Life", the fourth episode of season two of The Golden Girls. She was portrayed by veteran actress Nan Martin, who also played Philomena Bosco in another Golden Girls episode "Foreign Exchange" from season 4.

Claxton was an 83 year old shrewish and misanthropic woman who hated everyone and everything, from trees to even the nicest of people trying to give her company; she did not have any friends, or even any family members wanting anything to do with her either. In fact, some kids one Halloween wore costumes of her. In this episode, when the girls wanted to save a 200 year old tree on Claxton's property, a tree which the whole neighborhood signed to keep standing, Claxton was the only one who wanted it cut down and replaced with cement; she had also insulted Blanche for her promiscuity and Dorothy for not having a boyfriend or lover. During the committee meeting, Claxton went as far as to attempt to show leud pictures of Blanche with several men (including one of the committee members); it was then that Rose asked why Freida would hate a living thing, and when the latter responded "I hate you", Rose snapped and told Claxton to drop dead, which she did of a heart attack.

The whole rest of the episode deals with the girls trying to have Claxton's funeral, as no one else would hold one for her. A wooden box is all the girls can afford to bury Claxton in, and no one else besides the four girls shows up for the funeral besides a woman believing it to be her best friend of 60 years Celia Rubinstein, only for the woman to kick the box coffin upon learning it was Claxton instead, and that Celia's true funeral was down the hall. Finally, because of a mortician's mix up, Claxton had been cremated. Rose in the end finds redemption in herself by scattering Claxton's ashes around the tree on her former property, and therefore the city of Miami cannot tear down the tree as it is now a person's final resting place. The episode ends with Sophia remarking how a dog is now paying its respects by urinating on the tree.