Watana Marion answers a call at Alleghany High School.

Marion's motto? Always be caring

"Above all, always be kind and caring," is Watana Marion's personal motto. She said she tries to live out that philosophy in her position as administrative assistant at Alleghany High School, where she hopes students and staff think of her as a friend.

"I enjoy the students. I like to be in a position where I can help them if I can," said Marion. "Each day, you're affecting a child's life. You never know how you're affecting it."

After 15 years at AHS, she officially retired this year but plans to work one more year under contract.

Marion came to the post at AHS relatively late in life, after an extensive background of secretarial work.

Originally from Surry County, she graduated from Elkin High School, then got her commercial degree at Woman's College. That institution, which is now the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, was then all-female. Her first job out of college was at Chatham Manufacturing Co. in Elkin, working as a secretary in the standards deparment.

In 1956, she married Bud Marion. He and his father owned the Roaring Gap Motel and Restaurant.

After a couple of years, Watana Marion tired of the commute between Alleghany and Elkin. Her husband's family business ventures were also changing, as the family sold the restaurant and bought the old Duncan place in Glade Valley to go into the ham business.

"When we moved to Glade Valley, that's when they bought the ham house: Marion's Ham House. They started curing and selling country hams," she recalled. Mrs. Marion worked in the bookkeeping department at Northwestern Bank and as a secretary at Glade Valley School. She also did some part-time secretarial work for local attorneys including Worth Folger.

She remembers substituting for Wilma Crouse as a court stenographer. "I take shorthand; I'm one of the few people today who does that," Marion said. She also had experience working in the schools before being employed by the school system on a regular basis. "I had substituted right much at the high school and Sparta Elementary School, anywhere they called me." Subjects she taught included English and mathematics, usually in sixth through eighth grades at Sparta School.

"Before that I volunteered constantly," Marion added. "I was in every woman's club; I think I served as president of every one of them."

Hired at AHS

It was a setback — the ham house being destroyed in the 1980s — which led to her coming to work at AHS. "Our business had burned down; that's when I was looking for a job," she said. "Bud turned the old homeplace into a resort, and I got a job here."

Marion was hired in 1987 by Clarence Crouse, who was then superintendent, and Sam Rector, who was principal. John Brady was then assistant principal.

She at first divided her days, working the first half of the day at the Sparta School library and the second half at AHS.

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