{"id":480292,"date":"2026-10-29T11:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/480292\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:28:14","slug":"new-elementary-school-in-texas-named-after-beloved-longtime-school-custodian-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/480292\/","title":{"rendered":"New elementary school in Texas named after beloved longtime school custodian | Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

US schools are often named after presidents, historical figures and civil rights leaders. And soon joining those ranks is a retired longtime Texas<\/a> school custodian known for going above and beyond her duties by buying classroom supplies for children in need and helping students with their assignments.<\/p>\n

That heartwarming story centers on Marilyn Hampton, whose former employer of 39 years \u2013 the Aubrey independent school district (AISD) \u2013 recently moved to rename its new elementary school No 5 in her honor.<\/p>\n

The AISD\u2019s tribute, announced at a 21 October governing board meeting recorded on video<\/a>, brought Hampton to joyful tears and quickly went viral among circles dedicated to promoting uplifting news stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Hampton later told the Dallas-Forth Worth news outlet WFAA<\/a>. \u201cI haven\u2019t stopped crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before retiring in 2022, Hampton spent 39 years as an AISD custodian. But, as officials would later say, she took on much more than custodial work in her role, assisting students with their classwork; buying and delivering them school supplies if they needed them; and staffing the ticket booth at football games.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Hampton. Photograph: Aubrey ISD<\/p>\n

Thousands of AISD students, teachers and staff members came to draw inspiration from Hampton\u2019s commitment, according to the district\u2019s superintendent, Shannon Saylor.<\/p>\n

So the AISD ultimately decided to invite her to its October meeting under the guise of speaking about a particular school-related issue \u2013 then Saylor asked her to unroll a red carpet and read what was emblazoned on it in navy blue letters.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cMarilyn Hampton Elementary School.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe may not have the official title of an educator \u2013 but she was in every meaningful sense a teacher and educator at heart,\u201d Saylor remarked in reference to the namesake of the new school under construction and scheduled to open in August.<\/p>\n

An emotional Hampton replied, \u201cY\u2019all are too good.\u201d Covering her mouth, she continued: \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting this. Thank y\u2019all. I love all of y\u2019all \u2013 always miss y\u2019all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then composed herself and gazed at a monitor with an AI rendering of the school and a sign on it bearing her name. \u201cThey better keep it clean,\u201d Hampton joked, eliciting loud laughter among those at the meeting.<\/p>\n

When she reflected on the distinction with WFAA, she wore a new Marilyn Hampton elementary school T-shirt and recounted how she was the only one of eight siblings to graduate high school. She told the station she used to consider herself a failure for not going to college \u2013 but in time became \u201cvery happy with the way things turned out\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI just thought, You know, Marilyn? God put you where you are supposed to be.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US schools are often named after presidents, historical figures and civil rights leaders. And soon joining those ranks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-480292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}