Sunday, February 28, 2010
Longest
serving paper girl - world record set by Darlyne Markus
NAMPA, ID, USA -- Darlyne Markus, 80, of
Nampa, has tossed countless Idaho Free Press and Idaho Press-Tribune
newspapers for 51 years and through all sorts of weather -
setting the new world record for the Longest
serving paper girl.
Photo: Darlyne Markus flips through
past payment books in the living room of her Nampa, Idaho
home. Markus was recognized as the world’s
longest serving paper girl for her 50 years of service
to the Idaho Press-Tribune. Photo by Charlie Litchfield /
Idaho Press-tribune (enlarge
photo)
“I need to do something to keep lively.
It keeps you healthy,” said the mother of three grown children
who all grew up on the route.
When Markus first started, she got two days
off a week from her daytime route. Nowadays, it’s a seven-day-a-week
commitment during the middle of the night. “I haven’t really
gotten tired of it much at all,” she said, although “lately
it would be nice to sleep through the night, as I get older.”
The previous Guinness world record for the
Longest
serving paper girl was a newspaper carrier from Canada
who delivered papers for 44 years.
Markus was 29 when she first got the
job. The paper was smaller and a month’s subscription only
cost $1.25. Gas cost a quarter a gallon. There was a lot less
traffic and Markus knew every customer on her route — which
was during the day in the early years — by name.
A day in the life of dedicated
newspaper carrier Darlyne Markus begins with getting
out of bed at about 12:30 or 1 a.m., then driving to the Idaho
Press-Tribune loading area, where carriers pick up their papers.
For the next three hours, she delivers
papers to her customers — many have become her friends over
the past five decades. Her husband Bruce often accompanies
her. Then it’s back to bed at about 4 or 5 a.m. until she
wakes up again around 10 or 11 a.m. “Then I get groceries,
pay bills, whatever,” she said. “Fix a meal and go to bed,
usually around 7:30 p.m.
When Markus first started, she got two
days off a week from her daytime route. Nowadays, it’s a seven-day-a-week
commitment during the middle of the night.
“I haven’t really gotten tired of it much at
all,” she said, although “lately it would be nice to sleep
through the night, as I get older.” Come blizzards or car
trouble — she got stuck in snow once and a couple of Good
Samaritans simply lifted and carried her Volkswagen Beetle
back onto the road — she keeps on delivering.
Markus has been through nine cars since
she started the route and if her vehicle breaks down, she
rents one instead of handing her route over to somebody else.
“I’ve never missed a day,” she said, “and
when I have a problem I don’t expect the bosses to come out
and fix it.”
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Related world records:
Longest-serving
paper boy - world record set by Ted Ingram
Longest
career in the same store - world record set by Roy Goggs
Oldest
Barber - world record set by Anthony Mancinelli
Longest
serving radio DJ-Herb Kent sets world record
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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