OUR UNFORGETTABLE MISS MARCIA

           

Today is a watershed day in the history of Chattanooga television.  After fifty years of selfless service to the WTVC-TV audience in the tri-state market of Tennessee, Georgi and Alabama, Marcia Kling said goodbye.  Beginning as Miss Marcia on Romper Room, she went on to other assignments, always reaching out to us, always teaching valuable lessons by letting us see the possibilities, always helping us believe that we could successfully meet our challenges. She has been teacher, friend and exemplar, always there with a word of encouragement.

            Anyone who has been fortunate enough to know her knows that her influence will continue to affect so many lives.  Her innate goodness, her willingness to reach out to help those in need and her consistent ability to stand for what she believes while not judging others are qualities that are rare.  It is easy enough to have beliefs or opinions.  Our Miss Marcia never made others feel that they were beyond the pale, no matter their imperfections. 

            Over the many years since I was lucky enough to have her in my daily life at WTVC-TV, I have remembered her wise counsel and quoted her to others.  At a particularly trying time in my life, she reminded me that life is about choices.  She helped me understand that I could actually choose to be happy and pursue that choice actively with success. 

            I am grateful to have had her wisdom so readily available.  She set an example that I will always strive to emulate as best I can, despite knowing that I cannot possibly match her capacity for giving, her patience or her courage to rise above challenges that would daunt a saint.  Part of her amazing gift is that ability to inspire in those who experience her joy of life the belief that it is always worth the effort  to be the best that we can be, whatever disappointments we face as we strive to meet our goals.  In a culture that puts so much emphasis on winning, she allows us to see that personal growth and giving are the true wins in our lives.

            I believe that the power of her personality is such that she remains with us even when we are not watching her on television or talking with her in person.  Her good soul, having touched us, lives on with us, following our paths in life.  As someone who has always believed that television provides an electronic backyard fence over which we get to know one another, I will always be happy that Marcia Kling was--and remains--our favorite neighbor.

 

            "The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in your life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you have brought into other people's lives than you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them." –Rabbi Harold Kushner