{"id":46622,"date":"2023-03-09T14:10:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T19:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=46622"},"modified":"2024-12-20T14:41:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T19:41:01","slug":"what-she-never-had-laura-allred-79-gives-in-honor-of-her-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/what-she-never-had-laura-allred-79-gives-in-honor-of-her-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"What She Never Had: Laura Allred ’79 Gives in Honor of Her Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In 1951, a young woman named Marilyn Wattenbarger graduated from high school with outstanding grades and a stack of strong scholarship recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cMarilyn comes from a splendid background and has inherited leadership qualities of unusual degree. She has always proven herself to be of the highest moral and spiritual character, perfectly reliable in every way. Should any group choose her to be a recipient of their scholarship, their gift would be most wisely placed.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n \u201cShe is a willing worker, eager to learn, and will put her whole heart and soul into her work \u2026 She is a most deserving young lady and I know that any investment in her future will certainly pay dividends to society.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n \u201cIn my estimation, there are few prospects among high school graduates better qualified as a candidate for your annual scholarship than Marilyn Wattenbarger.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Wattenbarger, however, did not receive the scholarship she needed to afford college. <\/p>\n\n\n Instead, her daughter, Laura Allred, did so 23 years later from what was then NC State\u2019s School of Textiles, going on to build a successful career in textile design.<\/p>\n\n\n Now, Allred is creating the Marilyn Wattenbarger Scholarship Endowment, a need-based scholarship in the Wilson College of Textiles aimed toward helping applicants like her mother \u2014 academically gifted students who need an extra helping hand to assist with the burden of costs. <\/p>\n\n\n Wattenbarger grew up in a rural area of California, just a couple hours outside Yosemite National Park. Her parents divorced before she reached high school so she was supported primarily by her mother, an uncommon experience for the 1940s. Because of this, Wattenbarger worked when she wasn\u2019t in school, helping to provide for the family alongside her two sisters. <\/p>\n\n\nThe Life of Marilyn Wattenbarger<\/h2>\n\n\n