MANNINGTON — “Are you aware of all the things that Mannington has to be proud of?”  Orie Ellen Sterling, in turning the interview around, asked me.

Then she began answering her own question about the town of Mannington.

“We have a wonderful bed and breakfast, ‘Nature’s Song,’ operated by Joanna and Arthur Reeves. It’s out of town aways, past the miners memorial.

“You get out of the car and you have nothing but the birds. It’s a new farmhouse. She had two bedrooms — each with its own bath.

“You look out the window and see two ponds and the woods.

“And Rose Barker has opened Country Prim and Folksy,” Orie Ellen tells you. “It’s furniture, accessories— really quality stuff.

“It’s in the second oldest house in Mannington, on Buffalo Street. It’s a Saltbox style. I think she’s doing it all.”

Somewhere at about this point, Sterling was informed that she was Marion County’s “Everyday Hero.” She seemed thrilled.



Mine portals

Then she changed the discussion to the mine portals.

“The mine portals. There’s one out on Buffalo Road ... and then there’s one to be opened at Metz. There once was a school there that was converted to a store.

“They say around 700 men will work there. So we feel we have some opportunity here.”

She said that five or six years ago, she and Phil Pritchard had a campaign going for a road through the center of Marion County.

“The road would have gone from Parkersburg to Moundsville, up the Ohio River. It would connect Route 2 with Hundred. The 68 extension would have been east and west. The DOH said they could not afford to buy town property. We didn’t want them to. We just wanted a safer road so people could get out to jobs and kids could get out to schools and universities,” she said.



Outdoor classroom

Orie Ellen noted that Mannington has two museums and a wonderful library.

“In the past year, a group of us got together ... had a house taken out that would have taken a lot to restore. On that corner, we have a gazebo. We’re making it into an outdoor classroom. This is for the entire community.

“Mannington is on the move. I think it could be.

“We have a landmark commission that saved the jail in Fairmont. We try to communicate and let people know what’s going on.

“I’m optimistic about the county.”



Proud of community

Sterling wants people to be proud of their community, proud of themselves. “We’ve got so much,” she said.

She noted that everyone had problems. “But while you are here, you should try to do as much as you can, just like those women who have worked so hard and opened businesses.”

Orie Ellen has always kept a good, watchful eye on her hometown.

She says more restaurants are needed in the Mannington area.

“We need more restaurants. We need more places to eat,” she said.



Attempt fails

She said an attempt was made to save the famed Bowers house in Mannington.

“We tried to save the Bowers house. She left it to a goddaughter in Texas. We had a group together that wanted to restore it, but we couldn’t get the funds. It’s like the historical society . They need help. They have dinners. They quilt. They have to pay insurance. They help the state. They help it to grow.”

She recently resigned from the Mannington planning commission after 20 years. “But I’m still on the landmark commission. We need more publicity about it.

“Now we’re trying to get a section of town called Clayton Addition surveyed. There are a lot of large homes there. We would like to see it become an historical district.”



Mannington native

She was born in Mannington. And except for a few years when she lived in Houston, the town has always been her home.

She had three older siblings, but they are deceased.

“I lived in Houston for several years, but then I came back,” the longtime nurse said. “We were homesick for West Virginia. Texas was very nice to us, and we made some good friends out there. But this is home.”

She noted that her husband just recently died. He was an electrician.

“They are an optimistic group,” she said about people in Mannington. “You might as well tell the good things rather than complain about the bad.”



A nurse for years

“I’ve been a nurse,” she said. “I graduated in the Class of 1951 at Fairmont State. We still meet each year. I think it’s wonderful that we’ve stayed friends and in touch all these years.

“In 2001, we had our 50th year reunion,” she noted. “We usually have nurses from Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and some who have even come back from California. People who once were from here who long for Mannington and appreciate what they had here. We just take it for granted.

“We should be counting our blessings and enjoying them. I have wonderful friends and neighbors, relatives and cousins.”

She noted that neighboring Wetzel County will soon be on the move if it isn’t already.

“They will be mining all the way to the Ohio River,” she said, noting that this county was not allowed to mine coal for many years.

Now it can.

“We serve much of Wetzel County, the Hundred area, Pine Grove, Smithfield and Mobley,” she said. “Most of them come to Mannington when they come to town.

“You would be surprised the nice homes those people have built.”

Sterling loves the rural lifestyle.

“There are so many things that are good here,” she said, having made the interview extremely easy.

E-mail John Veasey at jcveasey@timeswv.com.