Presley Merritt Wagoner

In 1972, she worked as the assistant director of admissions at Brenau College.^[1]

In 1972, she joined the Captain James Allen Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution as a junior member.^[4] She was the West Virginia Outstanding Junior Member in 1982 and served as a personal page to DAR President General Patricia Walton Shelby.^[4] Merritt later served as West Virginia State Regent, Organizing Secretary General, and Chaplain General of the DAR.^[4] In 2004, she was elected as the fortieth President General of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.^[4] On June 30, 2006, she presented U.S. Marine Corps General Peter Pace with the Patriot Award during a ceremony at DAR Constitution Hall.^[5][6] That same year, Merritt dedicated a historical marker in the gardens of the Casa de América in Madrid that commemorated Spain's aid in the American Revolutionary War.^[7]

Merritt is a member of the Hereditary Society Community of the United States of America, the National Gavel Society, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Jamestowne Society, the Plantagenet Society, the Colonial Order of the Crown, the Sovereign Colonial Society Americans of Royal Descent, and the National Society Magna Charta Dames.^[2]

She married Joel Morris Wagoner, a dentist from Liberty, North Carolina, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Beckley, West Virginia.^[1]