Members of the Boxley and Christian families share a strong connection to the University of Mary Washington, with several having worked or studied on campus. Above back , from left: Gary Boxley ’11, Lloyd Boxley, and Kevin Boxley. Front: Remus Boxley ’88, Louise Christian Boxley, and Jean Watts When he graduated from Mary Washington in 1988, Remus Boxley was the first in his immediate family to earn a college degree. But he represented the third of four generations to forge a connection with the campus. His younger brother, Gary Boxley ’11, would also go on to graduate from Mary Washington, and a nephew, Gary Lamar Boxley, would participate in the university’s James Farmer Scholars Program throughout high school. “It’s like the family thing,” Louise Christian Boxley, Remus’ mother, said of her relatives’ many academic and professional links to the school. “It is awesome to think about it.” But Louise wasn’t all that preoccupied with family tradition when she applied for a position at the C Shoppe in 1966, she said. She and husband Lloyd were expecting their fifth child, and she simply needed a job. Her mother, Rosia Christian, and a maternal aunt, Nancy Jackson, had worked during the ’50s and early ’60s in the stifling heat of Mary Washington’s campus laundry. Taking the early shift at the C Shoppe would allow Louise to see her oldest children off to school in the morning and be back home in time to care for them when they returned. Louise’s sister, Jean Watts, also a mother of five, joined her at the C Shoppe in 1968 for much the same reason. Photo by Norm Shafer
The women arrived each morning before the doors opened, prepping trays of eggs, bacon, and cinnamon-sugar toast for the inevitable breakfast crowd. Lunches were even more popular, the sisters recalled, with faculty, staff, and students lining up for homemade fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, grilled cheese-and-bacon sandwiches, and the crowd favorite: a club sandwich, sections cut into triangles and held together with frilly toothpicks, and potato chips piled high in the middle of the plate. Louise and Jean’s boss, Mary Lee Carter, the cafe supervisor in those days, remembered, too. “We would have good ol’ Southern lunches at the C Shoppe,” she said. “We were really cooking in there.” Carter initially hired Louise to operate the C Shoppe’s drink fountain, but it wasn’t long before she was also handling inventory, food prep, and the cash register. Pretty soon, Carter said, Louise and Jean were indispensable members of the college catering team, working a full day at the C Shoppe and then handling special events at the president’s home at Brompton or serving meals to the Board of Visitors. “We were on our feet 15 hours a day, but it was fun because all the employees were like family. Louise had a wonderful personality. She wanted to move forward. She wanted to do U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G T O N M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 1 6
19