Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

In addition to working two jobs, Mary Martin hosts a weekly call-in talk show on a local cable station where topics range from federal issues to mustering support for families displaced by fires.

Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Government and utility watchdog Mary Martin serves a costumed Uncle Sam who stepped in the tobacco shop she manages in Collinsville for cigarettes and a break from hawking in the cold. Since early January, Martin has received dozens of visitors at the store bringing her copies of electric bills.

Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

From the dining room table of her home in Henry County, Mary Martin checks for filings from American Electric Power on the Web site of the Securities and Exchange Commission. AEP is the parent company of Appalachian Power Co., which Martin has sharply criticized.

Photo courtesy of Mary Martin

Martin stands with former U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode in a photo she keeps on her refrigerator door. Though her politics are right-leaning, she describes herself as an independent and can be tough on both Republicans and Democrats.

MARTINSVILLE -- Motherless child Mary Scott imagined becoming the perfect embodiment of the stereotypical suburban housewife of the 1950s.

Her role model was a character in the "Leave It to Beaver" TV sitcom.

This year, on March 5, Mary Scott Martin turned 58.

"When I was growing up my dream was to be June Cleaver," Martin recalled. "I wanted the little house, with the kids, and the husband coming home. I wanted to wear an apron and bake cookies."

Fate had other plans for this daughter of an elderly tobacco farmer who raised Martin and two other children after his youthful wife packed up and left.

"Circumstances make you into a whole different person," Martin said.

Many Southside Virginians admire who Martin has become. Others do not.

Friends and foes

Fans see Martin as a fearless advocate for the forgotten, the jobless, the struggling elderly, the student poised to quit. For them, she is a strong woman who speaks truth to power. And, recently, to power companies -- especially Appalachian Power Co.

Critics say Martin can be a loose cannon sometimes unencumbered by facts -- a critique leveled more than once during her term on the Henry County School Board from 2004 to 2007.

Todd Burns, a spokesman for Appalachian, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, said the company has reviewed episodes of Martin's weekly show on a local cable TV station.

"There is a lot of misinformation [about utility regulation]," Burns said.

Many simply appreciate Martin's forthrightness during an era of dither and waffle.

Jeff Porter, dean of student development services at Patrick Henry Community College, met Martin when she returned to school at age 37.

"Whether you agree or disagree with Mary, you have to admire someone who takes a stand and is not afraid to articulate what she believes," he said.

He and others have observed that Martin's empathy for communities long beset by factory closings and double-digit unemployment fuels her activism.

Getting to 'tough'

Robert Jackson Scott was 62 years old and his wife 27 when Martin became their third child. When her mother left, accompanied by children from a previous marriage, Martin was 3. Years passed before she discovered her parents' age gap.

"I never understood that relationship and don't to this day, and neither one of them ever explained it," Martin said. "I think my mother may have been overwhelmed to have so many children when she was so young. And my father was not an easy man to live with -- he always had the first word, the last word and the only word."

On a farm near Axton, father and children raised tobacco and cattle, chickens and pigs, and maintained a sprawling vegetable garden.

"I knew how to make a bull a steer," she said. "I remember pig-killing days. You grew up tough."

The family lived without running water, radio, telephone or television and heated and cooked with wood. For entertainment, Martin read library books. She still loves to read -- even when poring over legislation riddled with legalese.

"I taught my dad to write when I went to elementary school," she said. "He had always signed checks with an X."

Martin said her father was a fair man who "taught us to stand up for what was right."

"I'm not as hotheaded as he was," she said, smiling. "He had a temper."

Nipping at power bills

Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, has known Martin for years and considers her a friend, even after enduring scoldings from Martin during his long tenure in the General Assembly.

"There's not a thing wrong with that," Armstrong said. "It's important for community activists to speak up. She plays an important role in the dialogue that makes for a strong republic.

"And it's fair to say she does stick up for the little guy," he said.

For this legislative session, Martin rounded up copies of sky-high electric bills received by some of Appalachian's customers, many struggling already to pay household bills. She has praised Armstrong for calling out the utility and fellow lawmakers about rising electric bills.

Martin said she admires Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry County, who opposed 2007 legislation to "re-regulate" electric utilities and tried again this session to gut it.

"I'm a huge fan of Roscoe's," she said. "I think Roscoe has a pure heart and clean hands on this whole regulation issue."

When Martin is fired up, politicians of all stripes get singed.

Her Facebook page shows she is a fan of Republicans Sarah Palin and Gov. Bob McDonnell and conservative firebrand Glenn Beck.

Martin considers herself an independent. She admires Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- but not the current speaker of the House of Representatives.

"Sarah Palin is a strong, smart woman, just as Hillary Clinton is a strong, smart woman," she said. "But I can't say anything good about Nancy Pelosi."

Martin devotes many hours to activism even while working two jobs and hosting her TV show, where she offers a "Richmond Review" during General Assembly sessions.

"Too many people take politicians at their word," she said

More Ward than June

Martin manages Hollywood Cinema and the Tarheel Tobacco store in Collinsville. As a longtime smoker, her Southside drawl tends toward raspy. Her laugh is backed by a whisper of wheeze. She does not drink.

Martin laughs frequently. During an interview at her trailer near Martinsville, Martin seemed subdued only once -- when talking about three marriages that ended in divorce.

"I made some poor choices," she said. "I kept seeming to navigate toward people who did not have my same set of values, and it took me awhile to realize that. I think I had an incessant need to take care of people."

Martin raised three children as a single mother and worked two and three jobs at a time to do so.

"You do what you have to do because I absolutely refused to raise my children on welfare," she said. "I'm not knocking people that get welfare. It's there for those who need it."

She worked as a bartender at the Dutch Inn Hotel, where later, after earning two associate degrees, she was promoted to sales and marketing director. She worked for the Martinsville Phillies baseball team. She labored in factories.

The list is long.

"I've had some jobs I hated, but when you have three kids to support, you work."

A sister helped with child care, as did families whose children and Martin's were friends. And she said her oldest daughter, Melissa Blair, now girls varsity basketball coach for Bassett High School, "stepped up and became a little adult real early."

Blair said her mother "would always try to do something special with us during the time that she didn't have to go to work."

"I had a great childhood," she said.

Martin walks the line

Martin's first watchdog drive to Richmond happened about eight years ago. She has scrutinized Appalachian for years and attended numerous regulatory hearings.

"I bought me some AEP stock because I wanted a lot of information that I could not get," she said. "I have four shares."

Martin's campaign to tighten regulation of electric utilities snowballed this winter, when prolonged cold and ongoing rate increases saddled many customers in economically distressed Southside with staggering electric bills. Irene Leech, an associate professor of consumer affairs at Virginia Tech, has become a Martin supporter.

"I don't know how Mary manages to do all she does, but she cares about others and is willing to try to make a difference," Leech said.

Blair described her mother as "a very strong, intelligent and proud woman -- and quite outspoken."

"She is an inspiration to so many," Blair said.

The kitchen table in Martin's trailer is watchdog central.

For inspiration while consulting her aged iBook computer, she cranks music.

"If I'm in a real kicked-up mood, I put on Johnny Cash. And if I really want to mix it up, I put on the best of Tina Turner. That's another strong woman I admire."

Fixed-income elderly by the scores have turned to Martin this winter after receiving high electric bills. Martin seems to have acquired a widespread reputation as a compassionate advocate.

Miriam LaPrade, 80, is aware that Martin's fight to control rate increases might not succeed.

"I know that. But's she not going to stop," LaPrade said. "She's got guts."