A champion for veterans is retiring

For 40 years, Marie Champion has overseen the Rutherford County Veterans Services department. On Dec. 18, she'll leave the position, but, she said, she'll never stop working to help veterans.

"Herbert Downey was the director when I began, and was given the approval to hire an additional position. He knew my sister and asked if I might be interested in working for him," Champion said. "I was there two weeks and he went on vacation - so the best way I learned how to do my job was hands on." Downey, she continued, was like a father to her, and that she had "loved every minute" of the job.

As director of veterans services, Champion has performed administrative work in advising armed forces veterans and their dependents of the benefits available to them under federal, state and local laws. It has been a job, Champion said, that she has been passionate about.

"I've cried with many of them," she said. "There are times when a veteran is angry, and you have to calm them down before you can get anything done. They have to know you care about them before you can help them."

During her tenure Champion has completed many forms and reports and collected data to support a claim.

"What has given me the greatest pleasure is to file a claim for a veteran, and then for him to come back to me to say 'I got a back check.' I know that I've changed a lot of lives," she said.

The veterans services department is not a part of the VA, Champion explained, and the role of the department is to advocate for all veterans.

"If they walk in and need help, we help them," she said.

And if they couldn't come to her .... well, Champion went to them.

"I've been to nursing homes and the hospital to file claims," she said. "And I try to go to all the events that honor veterans. I owe them my life - this job is what raised my children and helped me to buy a house. I can never do enough for them."

The veterans she's helped have returned the kindness, particularly when her daughter died in 2006.

"They've always been here for me and I'll always be here for them," Champion said.