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Mars Hill's Hart Keeps Up the Beat
by Melanie King
How would you like your omlet?
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Virginia Hart is on duty, washing tables and dishes, keeping fresh coffee available, filling the ice cream machine, and, finally, frying her original, "order-the-way- you-like-it" omelets. Her clear articulation of words and sturdy frame give the impression of strength, inward and out. She is busy at work in the Mars Hill College dining hall.
Few people on campus know Hart as anything but a person who keeps the cafeteria running. With her five-foot-one build and her authoritative attitude towards her job, people often ask her if she's a manager.
Explaining her attitude towards her job, she declares, "When people ask, 'do you run the dining room?' I say, 'No, I help see that the dining room runs.'"
They have no idea she has a doctorate in physical education, founded the Mars Hill College women's tennis program, and that she taught right here at the college for more than forty years.
Originally from Orangeburg County, South Carolina, Hart grew up on a farm, the youngest of six brothers and one sister.
She first came to Mars Hill College as a student in 1941, after her parents read about the college in a Baptist newspaper. She came to study business but got some advice that would point her in a different direction.
"I was over at the pool, in the McConnell building," says Hart, "when the physical education teacher pointed a finger at me and said, 'Jinks, you'll never be happy behind a desk. Why don't you major in physical education?'"
With her teacher's advice, she wrote to her parents, and after gaining permission, transferred to Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, to earn her degree in physical education. Twenty days after graduation from Winthrop, Hart won a summer teaching job here at Mars Hill College that would lead to her permanent employment.
When Hart first started teaching at Mars Hill in 1945 she was the only woman in the physical education department. She taught mostly women's sports, coaching men's tennis for ten years because there was no women's varsity.
In 1964 Mars Hill became a four-year college and Hart began to teach major courses and upper-level swimming classes. When the college started women's varsity sports, she started the women's tennis program.
Hart was at one time or another, a basketball, volleyball, and tennis coach. In 1950 she went to George Peabody College in Tennessee to acquire her masters degree, and later in 1976 she earned her doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Mars Hill sports wouldn't be the same without Hart
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In honor of Hart's hard work and dedication to the college, and for starting women's tennis, the tennis courts were dedicated to her. Hart retired from teaching in 1985, continuing to coach tennis for one last year.
After Hart retired from Mars Hill College, she taught in the continuing education program, worked in the dining room of the First Baptist Church of Asheville, and at Hardee's. She also took a missionary trip to the Pacific Island of Palau. There she taught tennis and tutored school children, traveling back and forth by boat to teach at male and female sections of the school.
She came to the Mars Hill College dining hall three and a half years ago.
"I'm glad to be back with the students, faculty and staff," Hart says, and then calls over to a student in stern humor, "Where's Lee? Tell him he can't make straight A's lying in bed!"
Today she is close to eighty, with a radiant smile and excellent health. When asked if she still plays tennis, she smiles and says, "If I have time to do anything, I'd rather fish. I fish for anything that bites the hook, that I can reel in and then throw back."
She casually notes that she has developed quite a reputation for her fishing, and that one of her favorite places to pursue her hobby is at Hilton Head Beach, South Carolina, where she and some friends own a place. She has also enjoyed fishing on several cruises to the South Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
She also enjoys going home to her two dogs and "fat cat" to enjoy her garden. Hart explains about the variety. "I tell people I have a house to live in, a cottage that I rent, and cabin that I play and entertain in."
Hart's life seems to be full of interesting stories, and one that is a favorite of hers is when she was asked to be the tour guide for executives from Chartwells, the private firm that has contracted to run the dining hall.
People from Chartwells had come to the college cafeteria to demonstrate some of their products, and Hart was asked to be their tour guide. During a rafting trip on the French Broad they hit some white water.
Hart laughs and says, "I turned around and no one was behind me. They had fallen out and were trying their hardest to get back in the raft. Now when any of the executives come to the dining hall we all laugh and kid each other about the incident on the river."
Hart has been with the college for almost sixty years, and it seems that when everyone else falls out, she keeps hanging on.
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