Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
After some 31 years with the federal government, most of them with Sweet Home Post Office, Clerk Donna Hemingway retired on Sept. 30.
Hemingway?s career path took her through the military and across the country before bringing her back to Sweet Home, where she would spend almost three decades working at the local Post Office.
Hemingway, 61, graduated from Sweet Home High School in 1962 then joined the Women?s Army Corps of September that year. While in the military, she did clerical work.
She was in a little more than two years, Hemingway said. ?Actually, I liked it, but I got stupid. I got married, and he wanted me out.?
At the time, she had orders to go to a base in Germany, but she chose to return to Oregon, where she went to work for admissions at Oregon State University. She later split up with her husband.
She was there for about a year and a half before marrying again and moving to Oklahoma, which was a disaster on both counts, Hemingway said. She returned to Oregon again and went to work as a mail clerk at the Veteran?s Administration Hospital in Roseburg.
She returned to Sweet Home after her mother got sick, and she quit the VA Hospital in 1976. She married her husband, Larry, in 1976.
She started working at Sweet Home Post Office on Dec. 16, 1978.
?I just settled in, and we?ve just been here ever since,? Hemingway said. Her own children, Troy Lynn Hankins of Albany and Edward Grant of Gibson, Idaho, both graduated from Sweet Home High School. She has one grandson.
With her time in the military and the VA Hospital, she has put in more than 31 years for the federal government.
?I love the crew,? Hemingway said of the Post Office. ?The crew is about the best crew to work with. It?s just like a family here. That?s about the hardest part of quitting.?
Like the crew, most of the residents of Sweet Home are great, Hemingway said. The people and the crew have made her job easy.
Hemingway has been through four postmasters since she went to work in Sweet Home, starting with Don Hoffman, who retired in 1988. She?s been through many more ?officers in charge,? who fill in between postmasters.
Hemingway started as a clerk-carrier. She later became a clerk then substitute supervisor.
At the time of her retirement, she worked the counter along with a few administrative duties. Her responsiblities included keeping up on procedural changes, both union and management, and working as a trainer.
Hemingway said she enjoyed finding out what services the public needs, explaining available services and helping the public figure out how to use postal services.
Everything has changed since she started working for the Post Office, she said. When she started, bookkeeping was done on paper, and everything was manual. As time went by, the Post Office began adding machines to help with paperwork, and now it uses modern computers.
Now financial information is ?sent away to, I call it, cyberspace,? Hemingway said. She and the new computers didn?t always get along too well.
?When they said that we?re going with computers, I told them I am no good with computers,? Hemingway said. ?I was just going to be a complete failure.?
Later, when something went wrong with the computer, she was the one who would end up fixing it, she said. Now that she?s gone, ?the way I understand it, we?re going to get a red phone and connection up to my house,? she joked.
Over the years, Hemingway and the Post Office have shipped baby chickens, bees and live worms, she said. ?That would probably be the weirdest thing, but to me, mailing anything isn?t really weird.?
In her retirement, Hemingway said, she will probably take computer classes at Linn-Benton Community College.
The former technophobe is now fascinated by computers, she said. She wants to learn more of the programming end of them.
?I figure that?ll keep me,? Hemingway said. Once she does all of that, she has boxes full of pictures and a lifetime of stories about her family to guide her into the world of genealogy.
She and her husband may travel next spring, in particular to explore eastern Oregon. She also would like to visit the Dakotas and explore American Indian history.
She also enjoys cooking and baking.
?I?ll probably be the biggest couch potato you ever saw for about two weeks,? Hemingway said.
Hemingway will miss ?just being here,? she said. ?The other employees are great to work with. They?re funny. Everybody really works together to get things done. I?ve enjoyed this job just because of the crew and the people of Sweet Home.?
She loved it so much, she said, she actually extended her retirement date three times this year.
?I can?t extend it any more,? Hemingway said. She will miss the people, ?but I?ll probably make a big nuisance of myself. It?s just something I can?t help.?
Her fellow postal workers threw a retirement party for her at the Elks on Oct. 8.