Benefield: Marie ‘Mrs. Book’ Hinton remembered

Old Adobe Elementary Charter School librarian Marie Hinton liked to read stories. She liked to tell stories. She liked to share stories.

And she loved kids.

A story she shared with generations of students at Old Adobe School in east Petaluma was the one about the genesis of the school library.

She recalled how the “library” started with a single cart laden with books, rolling between classrooms. She started pushing that cart as a volunteer in 1974 when her oldest son transferred in as a third grader.

She’d tell students how in those early days kids would select their books from a fairly paltry selection of titles.

As the years went by, the school went from a library cart to a library room. It was smaller than a regular classroom, but it overflowed with books.

All students were welcome.

“It was a higgledy-piggledy type of classroom. The shelves went up high, it was like a maze in there,” fourth grade teacher Eliana Johnson said. “It was a magical little library.”

In the early aughts, the school built a brand new facility. Just like in the fairy tales on its shelves, the magical library became real.

And it also got a new name: The Marie Hinton Library.

For nearly five decades, Marie Hinton, known as “Mrs. Book” by the youngest of the school’s approximately 330 students, tended the library at Old Adobe with the kind of love and care that keeps someone in a job for 50 years.

“You can’t overstate the impact she had on people,” longtime former principal Jeff Williamson said. “I often said there are people who work at Old Adobe, but Marie was Old Adobe.”

After a rough 2021-22 school year in which she had to take medical leave, Hinton announced she’d be retiring from Old Adobe midyear.

A party, in her beloved library, was thrown for her March 2.

Cake and kids and books — on that afternoon, friends and family said Marie Hinton had it all.

After struggling with her health for some time, Hinton died March 30. She was 77.

No public services are planned.

‘It meant something to people’

Frank Hinton, the oldest of Marie and Bob Hinton’s four kids, all graduates of Old Adobe, said he and his siblings never felt jealous about sharing their mom with so many thousands of kids over the years.

“We were just happy to share our mom,” he said. “How many people get to do something they love every day?”

And Marie Hinton did love it.

She hosted family reading nights on campus.

There’d be hot chocolate and snuggle blankets.

Bob Hinton made a giant faux fireplace and Marie, wearing pajamas, would sit in her rocking chair in the multi-use room and read to hundreds of kids and their parents.

All wearing pajamas.

She helped track pages read for hundreds of students. She was on countywide reading and writing advisory boards. She hosted countless authors so kids could see, hear and ask questions.

She remembered which students were into which books. She suggested titles. She encouraged even the most reluctant readers.

She was “Mrs. Book.”

As such, she got high school graduation notes and cards from former students announcing life events. She’d bump into Old Adobe grads on the street and never miss a beat.

Her connection with kids was mutual, Frank Hinton said.

“It pays dividends,” he said. “It meant something to people.”

‘They all loved her’

Patty Norman is the children’s specialist and director of kids events at Copperfield’s bookstore in Petaluma.

Through author visits and dinners, book orders and a mutual love of all things books, Norman and Hinton became close over the years.

“She was delighted about having the authors at her school,” Norman said.

And if there was a dinner? Authors would leave as card-carrying members of the Marie Hinton fan club.

“She’d meet them at the dinners we’d hold and they all loved her,” she said.

But Hinton wasn’t all about “Stephanie’s Ponytail” or “The Stinky Cheese Man” or “What is Love?”

There was more there. Things like roller derby when Hinton was a teen growing up in San Francisco.

The story goes that Hinton sneaked out and joined a roller derby squad as a teen. She even had a roller derby nickname, that is, until her mother saw her face on a flyer and demanded that she hang up her skates, Norman said.

“I always thought, she could literally body slam somebody into the stacks if they were acting up,” Norman said with a chuckle.

And Norman was let in on a secret. Hinton had long promised that she would tell her friend her roller derby nickname, but only upon her retirement.

After her party last month at Old Adobe, Hinton made good on the promise and told Norman the moniker.

I had to ask.

“She did tell me,” Norman said. “But I will hold onto it. Out of respect, I will keep it to myself.”

‘There are absolute treasures out there’

In March, to mark Mrs. Book’s retirement, Old Adobe celebrated their librarian with a grand party.

Former teachers came, officials came. Hinton’s family came.

And all the students came.

Each class did their own thing, Johnson said. Her class of fourth graders all signed a book called “Dear Librarian.”

She got a gift certificate to get her nails done (her manicure was always perfect, according to Johnson). She got a gift certificate to Oliver’s Market. And she got books.

“We decided as a staff that we wanted to go big,” Johnson said. “We wanted her to know how much everyone in our community loved and appreciated her.”

There were banners and songs and a few tears. But the students just wanted to celebrate “Mrs. Book.”

“The kids were thrilled,” Johnson said. “I can’t tell you how much they loved her.”

Williamson, who retired from Old Adobe a few years ago, said people felt grateful they could honor Hinton. It was more than a retirement party.

“I think we are all so busy doing what we do, we forget that there are absolute treasures out there. We should take the time to let them know that,” he said.

Marie Hinton’s name was on the library, but the love didn’t start and end with books, he said.

“To her, it was always people caring about the library,” he said. “She didn’t realize that she was far more important than the library.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.