With a population just over 51,000, Lima entered the 1960s as a two-newspaper town – The Lima News, which, since its purchase by California-based Freedom Newspapers in 1956, had managed to alienate a good portion of those 51,000 residents with its opposition to the use of tax money for public projects like libraries, and the locally owned Lima Citizen, launched in July 1957 by former News employees.
To capitalize on “the fact we are the ‘hometown’ paper,” Citizen editor Robert C. Barton, who had held the same position with the News, proposed a series of stories on the newspaper’s employees, each of whom was asked to fill out a questionnaire.
Marian W. Fletcher, replying to a query about her role at the newspaper, wrote, succinctly, “You name it,” which also succinctly described her role in Lima since her arrival 14 years earlier.
She had been a teacher of speech and drama and was a pioneer Lima radio and television broadcaster in the late 1940s and early ’50s. She served as a judge at beauty and cooking contests, gave dramatic readings of plays and moderated political debates. In addition, she sat on the boards of the Friends of Music, which she helped found, the Salvation Army and the League of Women Voters,. She was a member of the Woman’s Club, Shawnee Country Club and Art Study Club.
And, when the Allen County Historical Society enlisted more than 30 local writers to collaborate on a history of the county to coincide with the nation’s 1976 bicentennial celebration, Fletcher, though she was born and raised 1,200 miles to the northwest and had lived in the East for more than a decade, was asked to write a chapter on local social life and customs.
Marian Wilcox was born August 9, 1910, in Deadwood, South Dakota, to Orson H. and May Hill Wilcox. After high school in Rapid City, South Dakota, she attended Colorado College and graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1931. She then studied at the Leland Powers School of Theater in Boston and was awarded a degree in theater arts in 1932.
In January 1937, she married Lima native James R. Fletcher, the son of Howard Thomas and Emma Roeder Fletcher, of 326 Elmwood Court. Howard Fletcher was a co-founder and partner in the Lima Storage Battery Co., which was formed in 1917 and handled tires, batteries and other automobile parts from its store at the corner of Elm and West streets. James Fletcher, a graduate of New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, courted Marian Wilcox while both were living in Boston. The couple had two daughters, Charity and Alison.
During World War II, James Fletcher served four years in the Marine Corps, including 16 months as an air combat intelligence officer in the South Pacific. By 1943 he was stationed at Quantico, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
Marian Fletcher, meanwhile, worked in Washington as executive secretary of the American Theater Wing, “working with top government and military officials in the fields of military security, treatment of wounded, etc.,” according to the questionnaire she filled out for the Citizen. The Wing, as it was known, was founded in 1910 to support “excellence and education in theatre” and became part of the allied war effort during World War II. It is best known now for establishing the Tony Awards in 1947.
In 1946, James Fletcher settled his family in his hometown. In January of that year, the News reported the Fletchers had purchased “a familiar landmark, the large two-story house and stables” built by Lima industrialist W.T. Agerter on Lakewood Avenue just west of Lincoln Avenue. The family, the newspaper reported, planned to convert the stables, which were at 500 Lincoln Avenue behind the main house, into the family’s living quarters. The stables had for several years been used by the Amil Tellers dramatic group.
While James Fletcher oversaw the family business, his wife soon was working at Lima radio station WLOK, hosting a program called “Breakfast at the Congress.” The Congress was a popular West Market Street restaurant. By 1952, ads in The Lima News advised listeners to tune in to “Homemaker Harmonies” on WLOK featuring Marian Fletcher “for good ideas in planning your meals.”
By 1953, she was appearing on television, too. Ads for WLOK channel 73 touted a program called “Marian’s Matinee” at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays. “Marian Fletcher welcomes this week’s cooking experts from the Elks Club,” a newspaper ad from April 1954 stated.
Given her local celebrity status, she was a popular choice whenever a speaker, narrator, moderator, contest judge, master of ceremonies or whatever else was needed. Whether giving a dramatic reading of playwright Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky” before the Temple Sisterhood at the local synagogue, acting as a judge helping to choose the queen and maids of honor at Van Wert’s annual Peony Festival or serving as a moderator at the League of Women Voters’ meet-the-candidates night, Fletcher was in demand.
“The second annual Rose tea is planned for 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday by members of the YWCA,” The Lima News wrote June 11, 1952. “The affair, to be held on the badminton court of the YWCA, will have Mrs. James Fletcher as master of ceremonies and will feature a program of music, dancing and a doll exhibit.”
Over the years she would teach classes on speech, drama and even charm at the YWCA.
At the request of the Allen County commissioners, she even joined a group tasked with selecting new curtains for the Memorial Hall stage.
“We thought maybe feminine knowledge would be useful,” commissioner Roy Roush told The Lima News in September 1953.
In 1957, Marian Fletcher’s byline began appearing in the Citizen, where, true to her do-it-all nature, she worked as a staff writer, features editor and occasionally theater critic and travel writer. Following a performance of “The Rivalry” at Memorial Hall in September 1957, she wrote, “This re-enactment of the Lincoln-Douglas debates can scarcely be called a play. It has no plot, and to those lulled by TV westerns with a corpse guaranteed every ten minutes, it may seem overlong and ‘talky.’”
In 1963, she embarked on a solo, around-the-world trip, filing entertaining stories about her experiences.
After the Citizen folded in January 1964, Fletcher continued to travel, often visiting her children and grandchildren, speaking to clubs and organizations and working with the Friends of Music and the Lima Area Arts Council. She was named a Woman of Distinction by the Lima Soroptimist Club in 1980.
She died February 15, 1999, at the age of 88 at Lima Convalescent Home. Her daughter, Alison Walker, The Lima News wrote, “remembers her mother as very adventurous and busy.” In her 50s, Fletcher traveled around the world by herself. She planned no tours and stopped wherever she wanted to see something.
“I thought she was quite adventurous for a woman of her era,” her daughter said. “She was a risk taker. She had a lot of courage and charm.”
James Fletcher, who retired as head of the Lima Storage Battery Co. in 1968, died Dec. 7, 2003, at the age of 94.
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