A familiar face at the Manassas Post Office will soon be missing.
Edna Lawson, who has been employed at the facility for 42 years, is retiring, effective Jan. 2.
"I'm going to miss working with my co-workers and the customers but I'm also looking forward to retirement and just relaxing for a while," Lawson said in an interview at the branch office in Old Town Manassas.
Lawson said she will enjoy spending more time with her family, which includes three children, Janis Ritchie of Manassas, Cynthia Johnson of Culpeper and Michael Rorls of Montgomery Village, Md., and nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
She began her long career in the postal service in September 1966.
"I read an ad in the newspaper that the postal department needed employees. I applied and was hired and have been at either the main post office or the branch office ever since," she said. Her titles include window service technician and sales and service associate.
Lawson recalls that when she started to work the cost to mail a letter was six cents. It's now 42 cents. A "penny" postcard now is 27 cents.
A resident of Calverton, Lawson said she will now have more time to devote her to church and community
endeavors.
She is in charge of the clothes closet at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Warrenton, where she also teaches Sunday School.
"I like to help homeless people as much as I can," she said.
Lawson said she likes to read in her free time and is in several organizations whose mission is to help the needy.
Lawson, who is one of about 75 employees at the two locations, offered this advice to anyone considering a career in the postal service.
"If you like working with people, go for it … and the pay and benefits are real good."
Her normal working shift has been 7:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. "It's going to be great sleeping in each morning," she said.
"We used to rotate who was off at lunch but with the recent closing of the office for two hours everyone is off … and it gives me a chance to run some errands," she noted.
Her trademark through the years has been always greeting her customers with a broad smile while asking "How can I help you."
Staff writer Bennie Scarton Jr. can be reached at 703-369-6707.
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