Marie Colton
{{Short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Marie Colton
| image = Marie Colton.jpg
| caption = Colton in 2014
| alt =
| office = Speaker pro tempore of the North Carolina House of Representatives
| term_start = January 30, 1991
| term_end = January 1, 1995
| 1blankname = Speaker
| 1namedata = Dan Blue
| predecessor = Don Beard
| successor = Carolyn Russell
| state_house1 = North Carolina
| term_start2 = January 1, 1979
| term_end2 = January 1, 1995
| constituency2= {{ubl|43rd district (1979–1983)|51st district (1983–1985)}}
| predecessor2 = Claude DeBruhl
| successor2 = Wilma M. Sherrill
| birth_name = Marie Jaquelin Watters
| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|10|20}}
| birth_place = Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|09|25|1922|10|20}}
| death_place = Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.
| party = Democratic
| spouse = {{marriage|Henry E. Colton Jr.|September 4, 1943|August 29, 2011|reason=died}}
| education = {{indented plainlist|
}}
Marie Jaquelin Watters Colton (October 20, 1922{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Marie+Watters+Colton+October+20,+1922|title=Marie Watters Colton October 20, 1922 - Google Search|website=www.google.com|access-date=26 September 2018}} – September 25, 2018){{cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2018-09-25/former-north-carolina-legislative-leader-colton-dies-at-95|title=Former North Carolina Legislative Leader Colton Dies at 95|publisher=|access-date=26 September 2018}} was an American politician who represented the 51st district in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1978 to 1994.
Biography
Colton was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and was educated at Saint Mary's Junior College in Raleigh.https://www.sms.edu/uploaded/images/about/Press_Kits/Notable_Saint_Mary's_Alumnae.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}} In 1943, she graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Romance languages. During World War II, Watters served a code-breaker for the United States Army Signal Corps at Arlington Hall.[https://www.grocefuneralhome.com/obituary/Marie-Watters-Colton/Asheville-NC/1815693 Marie Watters Colton-obituary] Marie Watters married Henry E. Colton. The couple first lived in Chapel Hill and later in Asheville. After her husband, an Asheville City Councilman, declined to run for state office, Marie Colton campaigned and won the seat. During her sixteen years of service, Colton focused on such issues as conservation and environmentalism, billboards, alternative medicine, tax reform, historic preservation, tourism and economic development in western North Carolina, child welfare protection, domestic violence laws, legislative ethics reform, and allowing local school boards to ban corporal punishment.
Political career
Colton, a Democrat, was the first female Speaker Pro Tempore of the House, serving in that role from 1991 to 1994. In recognition of her advocacy of women and children's issues, Colton was appointed to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 1994. In 1998, she was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. Colton was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.{{cite web|title=Marie Watters Colton|url=http://www.ncwomensconference.com/content/2011-nc-womens-hall-fame|publisher=NC Women's Conference|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917041540/http://www.ncwomensconference.com/content/2011-nc-womens-hall-fame#mdb|archive-date=September 17, 2011|access-date=3 July 2015|location=Charlotte, North Carolina|date=May 18, 2011}}
Honours
- Keep America Beautiful National Award{{Cite web |date=2018-09-26 |title=Marie Watters Colton |url=https://www.grocefuneralhome.com/obits/marie-watters-colton/ |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=Groce Funeral Home |language=en-US}}
- Lifetime Achievement Award from the Preservation Society of Asheville + Buncombe County in 2014{{Cite web |title=The Asheville Citizen Times Subscription Offers, Specials, and Discounts |url=https://subscribe.citizen-times.com/offers?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.citizen-times.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2016%2F03%2F20%2Fmarie-colton-legislator-and-diplomat%2F80751850%2F&gps-source=CPROADBLOCKDH&itm_source=roadblock&itm_medium=onsite&itm_campaign=premiumroadblock&gca-cat=p&slug=restricted&redirect=true&gnt-eid=control&sltsgmt=0066_LPRB_A |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=subscribe.citizen-times.com}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/c/Colton,Marie_Watters.html Inventory of the Marie Watters Colton Scrapbooks and Audiocassette, 1978-1994], in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Southern Oral History Program Interviews with Marie Watters Colton: [http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/sohp/id/9090 North Carolina Politics, October 23, 1995]; [http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/sohp/id/11493 Southern Women: Women's Leadership and Activism, November 24, 1994]
{{Authority control}}
{{North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colton, Marie}}
Category:Democratic Party members of the North Carolina House of Representatives
Category:St. Mary's School (North Carolina) alumni
Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Category:Women state legislators in North Carolina
Category:20th-century American women politicians
Category:Politicians from Asheville, North Carolina
Category:Politicians from Charlotte, North Carolina
Category:21st-century American women
Category:20th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly
{{NorthCarolina-politician-stub}}