By Ashley Sanders

The News staff writer

Margie Fuller has had a secret admirer for more than 42 years.

Cloaked in the disguise of the Great Pumpkin, Fuller’s anonymous gift giver has not missed an opportunity to surprise the now retired Port Neches-Groves High School teacher with a Halloween inspired gift since 1964.

“The first gift, I found in the back seat of my car,” Fuller said with delight as she recalled the Great Pumpkin’s initial visit. “It was the most beautifully carved Jack-O-Lantern I had ever seen.”

Fuller said she took the gift to her journalism class to show off to all of her students.

“All the card read was ‘The Great Pumpkin,” she said.

When another gift came the next year from the Great Pumpkin, Fuller said she was shocked that someone thought so much of her to send a second present.

“I just figured it was one of my students and that once they graduated the gifts would stop,” she said. “That was 42 years ago.”

Since that very first Jack-O-Lantern, Fuller said she has received anything from a Halloween corsage, constructed out of black and orange ribbon and plastic spiders, to various flower arrangements and this year’s present —stuffed Snoopy and Charlie Brown Halloween figures.

“The card always says the same thing, ‘from The Great Pumpkin,” Fuller said. “I thought at one time I knew who was sending the gifts. But, I just never figured it out.”

Fuller said it would be nice to know who her secret admirer is after all of these years.

“I always try to figure it out, because I would love to know who is sending all of these wonderful gifts,” Fuller said. “Halloween is a very special time of year for me and it is always so exciting for me when a new gift arrives.”

At one time, Fuller said she was pretty sure that the florist who was delivering the gifts each year knew the identity of the anonymous sender.

“I think she would have eventually told me too, but unfortunately, she passed away.”

Even if she never finds out her secret admirer’s identity, Fuller said that whoever has thought so much of her for the past 42 years will always have a special place in her heart.