A school custodian in Aubrey, Texas, learned this week that the district’s newest elementary school will carry her name, after 39 years working for Aubrey Independent School District.
Marilyn Hampton, who retired this year, had no idea what was coming when the Aubrey ISD board of trustees made the announcement Wednesday. “Elementary School Number Five” will become “Marilyn Hampton Elementary School” when it opens next August.
Superintendent Shannon Saylor set up the surprise by asking Hampton to roll out a red carpet in front of the podium during the board meeting, a nod to the kind of work she’d done for the district for decades. When Hampton looked down, she saw the name on the carpet: Marilyn Hampton Elementary School.
“You’re too good. I wasn’t expecting this. Thank y’all. I can’t speak,” Hampton said, before breaking down in tears and covering her face.
“Oh my goodness. Oh God. You all are the best,” she added, as board members moved in to hug her and show her an image of the school bearing her name.
“That’s OK, it’ll be everywhere,” Saylor joked.
Saylor told the board Hampton had been far more than a custodian over the years. “She may not have the official title of an educator, but she was in every meaningful sense a teacher and an educator at heart,” Saylor said, according to footage the school posted on social media.
Hampton told WTOC on Friday the news still hadn’t sunk in. “I still can’t believe it. I haven’t stopped crying. My heart is full,” she said.
Hampton was one of eight siblings and the only one in her family to graduate from high school. She said she once viewed never going to college as a personal failure, but came to see things differently over time.
“I just thought, ‘You know, Marilyn? God put you where you are supposed to be.’ And I’m very happy with the way things turned out,” Hampton said.
Saylor said Hampton’s work went well beyond maintenance duties — she bought and delivered school supplies for students and helped them study for tests. “She is truly Aubrey ISD,” Saylor said, adding that Hampton left behind a legacy of kindness, hard work and perseverance.
These days Hampton spends time at the district’s Early Bird Learning Center, where she rocks and feeds a young girl named Claire. “She’s a sweetheart. She’s got pretty eyes,” Hampton said.
The district presented Hampton with a T-shirt printed with the new school’s name to mark the occasion. “Can you believe it? I can’t. I cannot. All I can say is God is good,” she said.
