ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHATHAM (AP)
SOURCE: MARK THOMAS DANVILLE REGISTER & BEE
The girls ask Hunt about their dry cleaning, what's for dinner and whether a boyfriend has called. She offers a compassionate ear and a bit of advice for someone with a problem. She raises an eyebrow at the high hems of some skirts the girls wear and the volume of the music they play.
She watches those who enter the building and ascend its winding staircase. She has made gentlemen callers who arrive early wait a respectable time for their dates.
Hunt is one of the important links between the brick, hilltop school and its far-flung alumnae. She was named an honorary alumna in 1992.
Hunt, a Pittsylvania County native who lives a mile from the school, came to Chatham Hall in 1943, her first job. She worked for another switchboard operator who was sick. She's been on the phone ever since.
Hunt has one daughter, but many of Chatham Hall's girls feel almost as if they, too, were her daughters.
``She was like a second mother to everybody who was there when I was,'' said Muffy Dent Stuart, a 1968 graduate.
Hunt was someone to talk to about boyfriend problems, Stuart said. She would tell the girls if they weren't sitting correctly. She would tell them not to run on the stairs.
She once chased away Hargrave Military cadets who weren't supposed to be at Chatham Hall, Stuart said.
``She has an uncanny capacity to remember who passed what door and went into what room,'' said Rector Jerry Van Voorhis.
In a tribute Van Voorhis wrote about Hunt during the school's centennial in 1994, he described her as ``a one-woman security system.''
Hunt left Chatham Hall on semi-retirement in 1993 after 50 years. She came back and worked weekends and as needed in 1994 and 1995. Then, Director of Operations Ronald Merricks asked her to come back full time this September.
``I told Ronald I'd stay as long as my health is good, as long as my brain is good.''
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB