Marie Watters Colton of Asheville, Buncombe County, N.C., represented the 51st district in the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1978-1994. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate, Colton married Henry E. Colton. The couple lived first in Chapel Hill and later in Asheville. After her husband, an Asheville City councilman, declined to run for state office, Marie Colton campaigned for and won the seat. 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. The collection includes scrapbooks related to Marie Colton's activities in the North Carolina General Assembly, 1978-1994. Scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, photographs, letters from constituents and lobbyists, notes from government officials, and other materials. Topics include corporal punishment, conservation and environmentalism, billboards, alternative medicine, tax reform, historic preservation, tourism and economic development in western North Carolina, child welfare protection, domestic violence laws, and legislative ethics reform. Newspaper clippings detail Colton's promotion of stronger sedimentation laws, years of fighting to allow local school boards to ban corporal punishment, handling of the state budget crisis in 1991, reelection campaigns, and efforts to ban highway billboard signs. Scattered throughout are legislative directories and notes on legislative sessions that demonstrate her wit and sense of humor. Also included is an audiocassette containing Colton's 1990 Speaker Pro Tem acceptance speech.
