Marie Templeton

Biography

I, Violet Marie Van Arsdale Templeton, was born in Mancos, Colorado on September 22, 1929 to Tom and Violet Van Arsdale. My early years were spent in many different places as my father looked for jobs in the Depression Era. After many of the jobs it seemed like we always moved back to Rico, Colorado, where my father was a hard rock miner. In 1940 we moved to Nucla, Colorado, where my father worked in the uranium mines. I graduated from Nucla High School in the spring of 1948. That fall I married Martin Templeton. We had two children, a boy and a girl. After my children started to school I volunteered as a library aide at the Nucla Elementary School. Later I was hired as a library aide at that school. After my children were raised, I went to Western State College in the summers and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education. I taught first grade one year at the Naturita Elementary School. Later, I received my state endorsement as a Media Specialist and for the last five years I worked, I was the District Media Specialist, in charge of three schools. After I retired I became active in the Rimrocker Historical Society as their Historian. In that position I have compiled two books, six booklets, and wrote a weekly column for the San Miguel Basin Forum. At the present time I am working on a picture book of the Standard Chemical Company, an early producer of radium and vanadium products.

Violet Marie Van Arsdale Templeton
Nucla, Colorado
January 2007