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Edith Ness, a resident of Stanley, was recently featured in an issue
of The Leader Telegram article entitled “Age Won’t Stop Stanley Woman
from Working.” The article was written and photo taken by Liz
Hochstetler. The article ran as follows:
Edith Ness smiles
brightly as she slowly makes her way around the administration office at
Stanley Correctional Institution.
She has important tasks to
complete, from sorting mail for the prison’s 14 departments to compiling
employee orientation packets and alphabetizing 389 timesheets for
bi-weekly payroll.
“I do whatever the warden’s secretary needs
to be done,” she said.
At age 85, Ness could have chosen to
retire two decades ago, but instead she insists on working.
“I’m
low-income, so I need the money, and because it gets me out with people,
it’s fun,” she said of her job.
Ness is in a paid training
program with Senior Citizens Employment and Training of Eau Claire. The
organization places senior citizens over age 55 in assignments at
non-profit and government agencies and pays its employees through a
Department of Labor grant.
“They do a tremendous job,” Ness
said. “They know about the jobs and where they are, and they know about
your needs.”
Ness, of Stanley, was one of three in the state
honored as an Outstanding Older Worker of the Year by Wisconsin’s Older
Worker Network. She is older than each of her fellow honorees by
at least 16 years.
She received the award for all the hard work
she puts in at the prison.
“Her work ethic puts the rest of us
to shame,” her supervisor Julie Miller told the Older Worker Network.
“Even when it’s bitterly cold, Edith puts on her snowmobile suit and
comes to work. We finally told her when the schools are closed for bad
weather, she has to stay home.”
Though Ness could have left the
workforce any time within the last 20 years, a work ethic honed when she
was in her twenties has kept her going.
“I think it’s good for
everyone to know how to do something, young and old, because we don’t
know where this country is going,” she said.
Ness learned to
about civic duties in the 1940’s when the country was at war.
“In World War II, I went to Washington D.C. because they were so
desperate for help,” she said.
Answering to a call from the
government, she left her home in Stanley and headed to Washington D. C.
to work for the Navy.
The office job wasn’t always
glamorous. One day she was whacked in the face with a newspaper by
a man who had mental issues. He broke a bone in her nose. But
there were good times, too.
“It was a tremendous experience to
go to Washington D. C. and see all the sights around it,” she said.
Ness visited George Washington’s former home, Chesapeake Bay, all the
local monuments and took a boat down the Potomac River.
After
her stint in Washington, Ness was not ready to come home right away.
“All my sisters got married and started big families, but I had to
go my own way,” she told the Older Worker Network.
Ness never
got married or had children. She chose a different adventure, working
for large firms in Denver and Los Angeles and then at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison and Blue Moon Cheese in Thorp before returning to
Stanley in 1974.
“Then I started working with the school and
that was tremendous,” she said. “We set up the elementary school
library.”
Ness worked as a library aide until 1985 and later
returned to the school to work with the agriculture department.
In 2004, she was assigned to work 20 hours a week at the prison as an
assistant to the warden’s secretary. As a Stanley native, Ness was
a little concerned about working in the prison system.
“For
years everyone in Stanley, they had this mentality, ‘Oh, prison.’
They wouldn’t work here, so I was worried,” she said. But Ness’
fears were quickly forgotten.
“They have been so kind to me.
It’s just been wonderful,” she said.
In her five years at the
Stanley Correctional Institution, Ness has learned a lot about how the
prison operates.
“I really didn’t know anything about prisons
when I came here, and I didn’t realize how much help inmates get,” Ness
said.
Inmates are given an education and have graduations when
they complete their schooling, she said.
“They can really make
their lives over, here,” she said.
Through her years on the job,
Ness’ work ethic has only grown. In March, she tripped in the
office and broke an arm and a leg, and she couldn’t work for several
months.
But again, she refused to retire to the relief of her
co-workers.
“When Edith got injured, it made people realize how
much work she did,” Miller said. “She was out for months, and we
really missed her.”
Despite her efforts, Ness said she was
surprised that she won an award.
“It was so kind of everyone at
the prison, and everyone at the office came to my dinner reception,” she
said.
Ness’ determination continues. She said she has no plans
to retire any time soon.
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