THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510280096
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
THE SONS OF Confederate Veterans recently honored Marion Joyner Watson for a very special reason: She knows more about their ancestral fathers than they do.
In fact, ``She knows more Suffolk history than everybody in this room put together,'' said Betsy Brothers, president of the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. Watson is - what else? historian.
Sue Woodward, vice president, declared, ``She knows so much. She's taught me everything I know, but it's nothing.''
Most of local history's top buffs were gathered for the dinner at the Dining Room restaurant to surprise and pay tribute to Watson, described by one son of a Confederate veteran as ``the best friend Suffolk and Nansemond County ever had, historically speaking.''
F. Lee Hart, main speaker at the dinner, said Watson ``holds our history like a mother holds a small child. I felt secure, like Fort A.P. Hill was camped in the back yard.'' Joyner's parents were Hart's godparents.
For as many years as she can remember - and Watson is known for remembering just about everything, forever - she has been interested in local history.
It began with her father, Dr. George Richardson Joyner Jr., pediatrician for most of the current sons of Confederate veterans when they were boys.
``Daddy told us stories when we were kids. Most were made-up stories, fairy tales. But they stirred my interest,'' Watson said.
Watson retired from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Suffolk office about two years ago.
Even while employed, she spent her evenings, usually into the wee hours of the morning, reading everything she could find on the history of Suffolk and the former Nansemond County. Sometimes, she said, she could hardly find her bed for the books piled around her like old friends. Most of those books are already, or soon will be, donated to the historical society.
Lots of old human friends attended the dinner in her honor. Her doctor told her recently she has incurable stomach cancer.
While she planned to keep that piece of news quiet, word got out anyway, and she has already been honored at two gatherings, the first at her church, St. Paul's Episcopal.
She has been gathering, cataloging and preserving all that has been written about the church since her retirement from the DMV.
Watson, 67, gets more emotional about preserving Suffolk's history than about the prospect of her own death.
She's been very upset recently by vandalism in Cedar Hill Cemetery. People are taking marble angels from the graves for decoration in their own yards, Watson said.
And boarded-up historical buildings on Main Street also cause her pain.
``Tourism is big in Virginia,'' she said recently. ``And when tourists come to Suffolk, what will they see? A bunch of boarded-up, empty stores.''
Watson urges others to get interested in local history - to interview the older people who still remember the old days, to do research and put the words to paper to be enjoyed by later generations.
``What remains to be told?'' she asks rhetorically. ``Tons and tons of things. A lot of it is in my head.''
She hopes people will take on projects like her longtime friend, Andy Maxey, has. He's continuing research on old post offices of Suffolk and Nansemond County.
That's why it is essential that more people get involved in historical preservation. ``One could write about railroads, another the history of the peanut industry in Suffolk. It takes a long time. It's not done in a week,'' she said.
In the meantime, Watson is doing what she can to make sure what she has already found is left in the archives of the Historical Society. ``There are a lot of things I won't finish,'' she said. But she is not bitter about that.
She says she has survived longer than her doctor predicted because of all the prayers from her friends.
``I don't want to make it hard for my family and friends, hollering and screaming. I don't want to make them feel bad.
``What can you do? He (the doctor) told me, and I accepted what he told me.''
She has a daughter, recently remarried, and two grandchildren in the Richmond area.
Frances Worrell Clark, who had planned her wedding this month, moved it to August to be sure her mother could attend.
Clark noted that her behind-the-scenes mother isn't crazy about parties and publicity. Still with the ``outpouring of support, people are showing how they feel and it's all incredible. I know my mother appreciates it more than she can say.''
Watson does appreciate it, but typically said, ``It's hard because, to me, there are so many people just like me or already worse than I am that don't get thanked. I appreciated what they did.''
Clark also noted that often people don't get a chance to express love and appreciation until after someone dies. ``This is an opportunity they don't often get. It's sad there is a time limit, but good they were able to do this. To let her know how much they care.''
Lots of people in Suffolk know Watson through St. Paul's Church or through her historical interests, but many more know her, if not by name at least by sight, from more than 22 years at the DMV.
She was one of two who tested people from motorcycle and car to school bus and tractor trailer drivers for their licenses. She didn't have to ride a motorcycle, a bus or an 18-wheeler to test people, but she was trained to do it.
``You have to know how to do it to test them,'' she said. ``If you don't know how to do it, you can't tell if they're doing something wrong.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
Marion Joyner Watson, right, greets her friend Barbara West at a
recent dinner in her honor. Watson likes to spend her evenings
reading everything she can find on the history of Suffolk and the
former Nansemond County. Sometimes, she says, she can hardly find
her bed for the books piled around her.
"Daddy told us stories when we were kids... They srirred my
interest," says Marion Joyner Watson. Recently, she organized photos
of former leaders at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Watson sits on the steps of a pre-Civil War house on North Main
Street. The house almost fell to the bulldozers, but Watson's
efforts helped save it.
by CNB