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For Morgan, time right for retirement
Doug Flanagan/Post-Register
Corallee Morgan says it’s been a pleasure to work for postmaster Terry LaRue at the Quincy Post Office.
Corallee Morgan is retiring tomorrow after working for 31 years at the Quincy Post Office. It says a lot about her dedication to her job and the community, as well as the friendships she’s made over the years, that she is being given not one, but two retirement parties.
The first will be tomorrow night at C7 Bar & Grill, and the second will be Sunday at the Quincy Community Center.
The events may be designed to honor Morgan, but she sees them differently.
“I like to think of them as customer appreciation days,” she said. “I just want to say thanks to all the customers that have given me so much over the years.”
Morgan moved to Quincy in 1972 and started working for the post office in a combination role of mail carrier and part-time office clerk. Twenty years later, she took a full-time clerk position, which she’s held ever since.
Over that period of time, Morgan has made a lot of good memories. She’s also had the chance to work for a lot of postmasters — six by her count. One of her fondest remembrances from her time at the post office revolves around some of the people she’s worked under.
“I worked for Harold Mason for 12 years, and he was very friendly, a great person,” she said. “When (current postmaster) Terry LaRue came here, things weren’t very good, so when he showed up, it was like a Christmas present. He’s such a joy to work with. It’s been a nice way to end my career. Every day I come to work feeling good, and that wasn’t happening in the past. There were some bad times here. The people that have been here a long time, I spent more time with them than my family. They’ve become great friends. They’ve become my family.”
Morgan’s feeling for her co-workers are reciprocated.
“A quality employee like Corallee is impossible to replace,” LaRue said. “Not only is her retirement the post office’s loss, but it’s the community’s loss as well. All of us wish her the best of luck in the years to come.”
Of course, Morgan has mixed feelings about leaving a substantial part of her life behind. She’s looking forward to having the time to pursue her hobbies, but will miss the interaction with her customers and co-workers.
“It’s taken me five years just to make the decision to retire,” she said.
Morgan has a variety of interests that should keep her busy, however. She’s a member of the Quincy Valley Lions Club and is on the Quincy Community Center board.
She also wants to pursue some hobbies and activities that she hasn’t had a lot of time in the past for, such as improving her computer skills; spending more time with her son, Michael Hawkins, who lives in Fresno, Calif.; taking a cruise through the Alaska Insider Passage; sewing; cross-stitching; knitting; decorating cakes; and tracing her family’s genealogical history. (She’s a distant descendent of Sir Henry Morgan, a famous pirate captain in the 17th century.)
She’s also wants to become more involved with the Quincy Valley Library Foundation, which makes sense because Morgan is a voracious reader. She purchased a Kindle — an electronic book reader — from Amazon.com last year, and the device has changed her life.
“It’s phenomenal,” she said. “Since last December, I’ve read about 200 books on it.”
