GRAVETTE — Lorrie Amos took off her postal clerk's smock Friday, April 28, and folded it up for the last time. That was her last day of work at the Gravette Post Office, where she has worked for more than 20 years. Lorrie said it was a bittersweet day, one she had looked forward to with mixed emotions because she is looking forward to all the opportunities retirement will bring but she will miss her coworkers and the patrons she has served in her job.
"I've been blessed to be here for 20-plus years," she said. "I share so many great memories with my fellow coworkers, who have become family to me. My favorite part of the job has been getting to work beside these amazing people and getting to see and know all the people of Gravette. I absolutely love the Gravette community and am honored that I have gotten to be part of these good-hearted and amazing people's lives."
Amos is an Oklahoma native. She was born at Guthrie, Okla. Her family moved to Colcord, Okla., when she was six years old and they lived in the Chamberlain schoolhouse community. After graduating from high school at Colcord, she started her postal career at the Jay, Okla., post office. She stayed there for eight years and then transferred to Colcord, where she worked for another nine years.
Lorrie met her husband, Donald, when she was playing on the same softball team with his sister. When they married, they moved to the home near the Oklahoma-Arkansas line at Cherokee City where they now live. Donald retired two years ago from the city of Gentry, where he had worked for the water department. He was encouraging his wife to retire ever since. "He keeps asking, 'What are you waiting for?' 'What are you waiting for?'" she said.
During the years she was working at Jay and at Colcord, Lorrie and Donald raised two daughters. Melanie is now in the Air Force, stationed at Fort Smith, and Amanda is a nurse at Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson. After the girls graduated from high school and left home, Lorrie was working part-time at Colcord and was wanting to work more hours. She said she didn't even know where the Gravette Post Office was when she first heard it could use some help.
"Mrs. Shirley Spencer took a chance on me and hired me to help them out a little bit," Amos said. Mrs. Spencer was Officer in Charge at the Gravette Post Office at the time. Amos first came over to Gravette only a few days a week, then came to work here permanently in 1996.
Amos said one thing she will particularly miss is the "Letter Carriers' 'Stamp Out Hunger' Food Drive," a special project which she has helped organize the last several years. "That was my baby," she said, "and I hope someone picks up the reins and carries it on." Lorrie said she knew it was a good cause and she enjoyed working on it because it was heartwarming to see the great support from businesses and individuals in the area.
The food drive has been going on for 25 years, and the last three years the supplies collected have been distributed in the local area. The Gravette postal employees collected a total of 2,342 pounds of food last year for the Share the Harvest food pantry.
Lorrie has few specific plans for retirement other than spending more time with her daughters, who both live nearby, and her two granddaughters, Amelia, 4, and Emma, 2. She said there will also be more time for her parents, who still live at Colcord and raise beef cattle. Lorrie's parents are retired from milking cows, but she has fond memories of helping on the dairy farm and doing haying chores when she was younger.
"I was one of five sisters and, even though we were all girls, we did that because we had to," she said. "We worked harder than the boys."
Lorrie and her husband have a garden and she says she enjoys gardening and her flowers. She said they also enjoy traveling and camping.
"I think we'll do the Route 66 trip first. My husband has always wanted to do that and now he says we can just take a couple of weeks, go and have a good time and not have to worry about getting back to go to work."
Amos' coworkers enjoyed a retirement breakfast with her Tuesday morning at the post office before the mail carriers went out on their routes. She said she was treated to biscuits and gravy and eggs, catered by Hollywood's Cafe, and it was a very enjoyable meal. Coworkers and patrons have also brought her some gifts, and she said she was deeply appreciative of all the nice gestures.
Karen Wilkins, a fellow postal clerk at the Gravette Post Office, has moved up to fill Amos' position. Kristen Campbell, who has been working in the Sulphur Springs Post Office, has come to take Wilkins' place.
Community on 05/03/2017