Women's Forum Oral History Collection Interview Index

Elaine Louise Folk Marshall was born November 18, 1945 in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Her parents ran a farm. She attended the University of Maryland, where she majored in home economics. She moved to Kinston, North Carolina with her first husband in 1968. While living in Kinston, Marshall taught at Lenoir High School and Lenoir Community College. She and her husband then moved to Dunn, where Marshall opened her own fabric store. When Campbell University opened its law school nearby, Marshall decided to earn her law degree. She was practicing law during the ERA movement, and often took on female clients and witnessed firsthand the ways the law treated women unfairly. At the time, she was a member of the Women’s Association of Attorneys, her county’s Democratic Women’s Club, and Business and Professional Women, all of which arranged events to promote the amendment that Marshall attended and supported. She also lobbied members of the General Assembly in support of the ERA. Marshall served in the North Carolina Senate herself in the early 1990s. In 1996, Marshall was elected to be North Carolina’s Secretary of State, making her the first woman in North Carolina history to be elected to a statewide executive office. Marshall continues to serve as North Carolina’s Secretary of State and has earned honorary degrees from several colleges and universities, including Meredith College, Campbell University, and Lees-McRae College.