One thing was immediately noticeable about Vicki Martin.
“Her smile has been the common thread in all the cards and letters I've gotten from people,” said her husband, Chuck Martin, 70. “She greeted everyone with it. No matter what you wanted, what you were there for, she gave you that beautiful smile.”
Chuck’s sister, Becky Lowry of Hillsboro, said the smile went deeper than the surface.
“She was one of the most pleasant, kind, wonderful people you’d ever want to meet,” Becky said. “She treated everyone with such dignity, and she did it so effortlessly, never asking anything in return. I’ve never met anyone like her.”
Mrs. Martin died April 23 after a five-year battle with cancer. She was a longtime executive secretary to the Hillsboro R-3 School District superintendent.
She grew up in Victoria in a house next door to her grandparents.
“Her dad told her she was named after the town,” Chuck said. “She would say, ‘I'm just glad we weren't living in Festus at the time!’”
She graduated from Hillsboro High School and attended Southwest Missouri State briefly.
“She got married, and she worked for the Venture office in north St. Louis County,” Chuck said. “Through Venture, she became manager of the Colonel Days store in Festus for a while, then went to work for Doe Run in the HR office.”
She and Chuck, both previously divorced, had known each other slightly over the years through family.
“Our dads were longtime good friends,” Chuck said. “I also coached her brother, Colby, in baseball. I would see her at different charitable runs, and she was friends with people I knew at Doe Run. It just grew into something.”
The two were married in 1983, and welcomed daughter Caitlin in 1985. Chuck’s daughter, Callie, 10 years older than her sister, came to live with them shortly afterward.
“The girls would have their moments,” Chuck said with a laugh. “But they are as close as can be.”
Chuck was a principal at Hillsboro Middle School in 1993 when Mary Jane Russell retired as executive secretary to the district’s superintendent.
“I told Vick she'd be perfect for the job,” he said. “There was a strike going on at Doe Run, and that wasn't an easy or pleasant thing for her to deal with. So she was happy to make that transition.”
The Martins were active with Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Hillsboro.
“There was an organized group of people who made dinners for the priests, and we’d take them over there,” Chuck said. “She served on the park board, volunteered with things Cait was involved with. She was a member of the secretaries association while she was working.”
The Martins enjoyed travel, mostly car trips to national parks.
“We went to Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Acadia,” Chuck said. “Last summer, we flew to Alaska and then took the train around to some places, and last fall, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway to Shenandoah and did the Skyline Parkway. That was the last trip we got to make.”
Mrs. Martin loved to socialize and entertain.
“Vicki liked to do anything involving people. She was always laughing, having a good time,” Becky said. “If there was a gathering, it was at her house. And she always decorated for all the holidays, inside and out. Lots of flowers.
“My sister and I always joked, we’d never even try to keep up with her as a hostess.”
Mrs. Martin was a bit of a pack rat as well.
“We used to always tease her,” Chuck said. “No matter where we'd go or who we'd be with, someone would say, ‘I need a band aid’ or ‘anybody got tweezers?’ and Vicki would say, ‘I've got it.’ Every trip we went on, she would pack just about everything anyone could need.”
Mrs. Martin was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2014, and underwent chemotherapy and radiation, as well as surgery after the cancer metastasized to her liver.
“For a while she was doing real well; her scans were clear,” Chuck said. “That’s when we moved.”
The couple left Hillsboro in 2017 and moved to Georgia to be near their daughter and their only grandchild.
“We had been here about a year and the cancer came back in her liver,” Chuck said. “She’d fight one thing and recover; then she’d have to fight another and another.”
The Martins’ daughter was expecting another child, and Chuck said his wife told him, “I just want to live long enough to hold that baby boy.”
“When she said that, I was like, ‘Well, sure you're going to. You're going to live a long time,’” Chuck said. “We were so used to her having periods of illness and then she'd recover. But I think she might have had a hint of what was coming.”
Mrs. Martin was hospitalized on April 7 for a week, and then returned home on hospice, and died surrounded by her family.
“If she had been still in the hospital, I might have been able to see her, but no one else,” Chuck said. “It was really a blessing to have her home.”
Chuck said his wife will be remembered for her friendly personality.
“It didn’t matter who a person was; she treated them with kindness and respect,” he said. “And, of course, that big, beautiful smile.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.