DADvocate

Up the road about 15 miles from me lies the small town of Bentonville. Bentonville is best known for the Bentonville Anti-Horse Thief Society which has been in continual operation since in March, 1853 and still operates today, primarily as a social club.

Today, I discover that Verna Naylor, oldest postmaster in the country and oldest female postal employee, has been laid to rest.

She was a celebrity for the service she gave to her community and for the service her family had provided the U.S. Postal Service for more than 62 years.

Naylor, who would have turned 95 years old on Aug. 9, died Tuesday.

She is being laid to rest today in the Kirker Cemetery.

Born in Peebles, Ohio in 1915, Naylor gained national recognition in 2007 as the oldest postmaster in the nation and oldest female postal employee in the nation.

She even received calls from the Jay Leno Show about the accomplishment.

"I never really talked to Jay Leno. They congratulated me and asked me if I had ever watched the show. I told them no," Naylor said in a 2007 interview.

She had not intended the reply to be an insult to the show.

"It is just that the show is on very late and I go to bed early. The post office opens at 6:30 a.m., so I am up at 6 a.m.," said Naylor.

God bless Verna Naylor.

If we had more like her paying the costs of Social Security and Medicaid would be easy. I have no plans to "retire" until I'm to weak or sick to move.

P.S. Kirker Cemetery is named after Thomas Kirker, one of the early governors of Ohio. Some of Kirker's ancestors still live in the area. Adams County is the poorest county in Ohio but has some interesting history, holds a large community of Amish and a lot of self-reliant people like Verna Naylor.