Salutatorian Martia Cox (Penix), second in the class of 1941 at Decatur High School, was surprised to receive a letter, dated May 6, 1941, from the Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

It was addressed to Miss Martia Cox, R.F.D. #2, Ironton, Ohio. Some remember those addresses.

The letter reads: “My dear Miss Cox: I am glad to see by the paper that you have won the second place of honor in your graduating class. You deserve a great deal of credit for this and I am sure your parents and friends are proud of your accomplishment.

“I sincerely hope that you will be able to continue your education. With kindest regards to you and to your parents, I am, Sincerely yours, Thomas A. Jenkins.”

— On July 4, 1941, Martia moved to Huntington to live with her dad’s older cousins while she attended the Wiseman Business School on Sixth Avenue in Huntington for several months. She accepted a job offer from Armco River Transportation Department in February 1942. She worked in the department offices at First street and the Ohio River in Hunting-ton. The offices were on a converted barge permanently docked there. Martia worked there more than three years. When she was 53, after raising three sons, she went to LPN school at St. Mary’s, passed the West Virginia State Board for licensed practical nurses and became a nurse.

Martia worked at Cabell Huntington Hospital for 10 years and loved it. Her youngest niece, Mary Joan South, works at Cabell Huntington, a nurse in the Trauma Unit. Martia is now a little past 80 and had open heart surgery to repair a heart valve this past spring.

Everything is healed except her appetite. Praise the Lord.

— The letter from Tom Jenkins was typed by Miss Arista Huber, secretary. Jeanne Kinley has a niece named Barbara Huber.

In the upper right hand corner is printed: Thomas A. Jenkins 10th Dist. Ohio. In the upper left hand corner is a list of the members of the Ways and Means Committee. The list includes John D. Dingell of Michigan, who served Michigan’s 15th District from 1933 to 1955; his son, John David Dingell, Jr., is the longest serving member of the House and still represents the 15th District, as he replaced his father in 1955.

He’s been there 53 years and is considered the fourth most powerful member of Congress. That congressional seat has been in the Dingell family for 75 years.

— Another committee member was Harold Knutson of Minnesota, an immigrant from Norway who apprenticed as a printer, became a successful publisher, and was elected to Congress for 16 terms from 1915 to 1947.

Frank Carlson of Kansas was on the committee. He is the only man to serve as Governor of Kansas, a member of the House of Representatives and a U.S. Senator. His hometown of Concordia honored him with the Frank Carlson Library and the federal building in Topeka is named after him.

The committee chairman was Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, who was known as “Farmer Bob” and served in the House for 42 years from 1911-1953. He oversaw the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 and helped create the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs from near Cherokee, North Carolina to near Waynesboro, Va.

North of Waynesboro the ridge road is known as Skyline Drive, which continues 105 miles to near the confluence of the Shennadoah and the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry.

Dan Rapp is pastor of Ohio Baptist Church and a south Ironton resident.