McDougals savoring Pigeon Forge

Mareia Wilmoth McDougal, Class of 1964, and husband Earl McDougal, Class of 1963, left their Swisher Hill home long enough to enjoy Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, home to Dollywood (as in Dolly Parton).

Mareia & Earl McDougal

They filled up at the Dixie Stampede Restaurant with Cornish hen, pork chop, baked potato and corn on the cob – “all without silverware,” Mareia wrote.

Mareia was only at Monongah High one year, her graduation year, after three years at Shinnston High School. That’s where she met Earl, who was at Monongah High all four years.

Earl is a former coal miner who retired from Borg-Warner.

Earl McDougal and Mareia have a blended family of seven children.

Mareia is a free-lance photographer and was a florist for 45 years as a Wal-Mart department manager.

Earl’s brother, Johnny McDougal, also graduated from Monongah High. So did Mareia’s sister, Sherry Wilmouth Vance, and her husband; and Earl’s siblings, Edna McDougal Saunders, Class of 1948, whose widower is James Saunders; Helen McDougal Mudry, Class of 1965; James McDougal, Class of 1961, who lives in North Carolina; and Reva McDougal Ash, Class of 1950.