• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Alert

Service Disruption: Westover Library book drop temporarily closed starting Feb. 8. More Info

Alert

Westover Library Has Sunday Hours. More Info

Home - Arlington County Virginia - Logo
MENUMENU
  • Join Now
  • My Account
    • Login
    • Borrow, Renew, Return
    • Holds
    • About My Account
    • My eAccounts
  • Hours & Locations
    • All Hours & Locations
    • Holiday Closings
  • News
  • Contact Us

Arlington Public Library

MENUMENU
  • Search
      • Browse New
      • Browse All
  • Events
    • Arlington Reads
    • Featured Events
    • Calendar
    • On Demand Programs
  • eCollection
    • eAudiobooks
    • eBooks
    • Digital Magazines
    • Learning Tools
    • Research Tools
    • All eCollection
  • Research
    • Research Portal
    • Research Tools A-Z
    • Local History
  • Library Services
    • Accessibility Services
    • For Book Lovers
    • Garden Tool Library
    • Maker
    • Meeting Rooms
    • Notary
    • Public Computers
    • Teleconnect Space
    • More Services
  • Explore
    • Catalog
      • Catalog Search
      • Catalog Browse
      • Digital Archives
      • Borrowing Collections
      • Book Lists
    • Kids & Teens
      • For Babies and Preschoolers
      • For Elementary Schoolers
      • Middle and High Schoolers
    • Local History
      • Research Room
      • Community Archives
      • Online Exhibits
    • Support the Library
      • Donating Materials
    • Popular
      • Consumer Reports
      • Overdrive
    • EXPLORE MORE
  • Join Now
  • My Account
    • Login
    • Borrow, Renew, Return
    • Holds
    • About My Account
    • My eAccounts
  • Hours & Locations
    • All Hours & Locations
    • Holiday Closings
  • News
  • Contact Us

Oral History: Margaret Troxell

Published: March 4, 2021

Margaret Troxell (1909-2002) was a pioneering local journalist who helped found the Northern Virginia Sun.

Arlington Voices the Oral History Collection

Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people’s personal experiences.

Margaret Troxell moved to Arlington in 1932 after attending St. Joseph College in Maryland. She first worked for the Commonwealth Monitor, where her salary started off at $8 (half of which was used to pay for her rent as a boarder on Fillmore Street). She later took on part-time work at the Washington Post and the Washington Times, as well as a music studio manager and music instructor, teaching guitar and mandolin.

Margaret Troxell Desk

Margaret Troxell at her desk, date unknown.

To make ends meet, she also did news broadcasts for the first radio station in Arlington, WARL. In 1935, Troxell and a group of other local journalists founded the Sun, a weekly paper based in Arlington. There she worked as a journalist and editor and was known for never missing a County Board meeting in her 16 years as news editor.

Troxell and the other owners sold the Sun in 1951, and it is now known as the Northern Virginia Sun. Later in life, Troxell opened a public relations office and worked on numerous campaigns around the County. She lived in Colonial Village for over 40 years, and outside of journalism, was an active member of Arlington’s Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Virginia Conservation Commission.

In the following oral history interview, Margaret Troxell discusses what initially inspired her to become a journalist, and how she became interested in writing.

Press Pass 1
Press Pass 2

Margaret Troxell’s press pass, issued October 22, 1946

Narrator: Margaret Troxell
Interviewer: Ellen MacMahon
Date: 1984
Note: The audio for this interview is currently unavailable.

Ellen MacMahon: Can we talk, then, about your work - when you got started in journalism and what made you choose journalism.

Margaret Troxell: Well, when I was in school, in those days, professions for women were somewhat limited to teaching or nursing or something like that and, of course, I had started writing just as a child.  I have a vivid imagination, and I used to send articles and stories to papers and I would have them returned with a check when I was just 10, 12 years old - and, of course, they had no idea how old I was.  And this was very encouraging so when I reached the college level each summer in high school I worked on a newspaper.

EM: A local newspaper?

MT: Local newspapers.  Since we had this summer home in Emmetsburg, I worked on the Emmetsburg Chronicle, and that was a weekly - and I went in to see the editor, and he told me he couldn't pay me anything.  That was perfectly all right because at the time I didn't need any money.  But he taught me so much. And we had a regular barter system.  I used to go out and collect bills, and if people couldn't pay, I'd take a bushel of apples, a couple of chickens or a ham.  That was a lot of fun.  And then I worked on The Baltimore Sun one summer - different papers, Gettysburg Times and a little paper in Thurmont - and that was very interesting because I went there just to work on the paper, and the editor became very ill, and I ran the paper all summer.

EM: What an experience.

MT: That was quite an experience.  It gave me a lot of experience.  Then when I was ready to go to college, the family had a conference, and they decided that newspaper was not for their daughter, certainly not.  My father was very broadminded, and he said, "Sis, you stick to your guns, and I'm on your side." So it was finally agreed that I could take journalism if I also took education. So I am a graduate teacher.

News Clipping 1
News Clipping 2
News Clipping 3

A selection of clippings from some of Margaret Troxell’s human interest articles, from the Northern Virginia Sun (Dates from right to left: October 13, 1939; September 15, 1939; August 25, 1939)

This interview is available at the Center for History, and issues of the Sun and Northern Virginia Sun are available online through the CLH Community Archives and through Virginia Chronicle.

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

March 4, 2021 by Web Editor Filed Under: Center for Local History, News, Oral History

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marc Palevitz says

    March 12, 2021 at 9:15 PM

    I very much enjoy coming to know and reading about the histories of Arlington residents who have made significant contributions to our community. Please keep disseminating this information — and thanks!

Primary Sidebar


The Center for Local History: Where Stories Live


Link to USS Arlington history blogpost.

The USS Arlington


Joan Cooper: Taking a Stand


Link to oral history blog post.

Oral History: Gertrude “Trudy” Ensign


Lutrelle Parker

Rediscover Lutrelle Fleming Parker, Sr.


Roberta Flack’s Arlington Roots


Read more blog posts from the Center for Local History


Center for Local History


Central Library, First Floor
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington VA 22201
703-228-5990

Footer

About Us

  • Mission & Vision
  • Center for Local History
  • News Room

Administration

  • Policies
  • Library Staff
  • Job Opportunities
  • Propose a Program

Support Your Library

  • Friends of the Library
  • Giving Opportunities
  • Donating Materials
  • Volunteer Opportunities

Our Mission

We champion the power of stories, information and ideas.

We create space for culture and connection.

We embrace inclusion and diverse points of view.

Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. YouTube. Flickr. Newsletter.

download appDownload the Library App

Arlington County | Terms & Conditions | Accessibility | Site Map
· Copyright © 2023 Arlington County Government ·