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Education Cabinet
Retire the thought of retirement for 83-year-old state worker
Editors Note: May is Older Americans Month. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, five million Americans 65 and older are in the labor force.
Christine Crowe is not your typical worker. At 83, she is the oldest full-time employee of the Kentucky Education Cabinet and after more than 47 years on the job, retirement is not in her vocabulary.
The Monroe County native is a placement interviewer in the Louisville KentuckianaWorks One Stop Career Center in the cabinet’s Office for Employment and Training (OET). Since she came to work for state government in 1958 during Governor A.B. “Happy” Chandler’s administration, Crowe said she has never thought of quitting or retiring.
Crowe said her goal is to work for state government for at least 50 years. In some ways you could say the never wed Louisville resident is married to her job. “Til death do us part or as long as I’m able and doing the job they want me to do,” she said of her career plans.
Crowe also is not your typical older worker. According a recently released federal report called “65+ in the United States: 2005” Americans are living longer, healthier lives but choosing to retire at earlier ages than 50 years ago. The report attributed much of that change in retirement attitudes to better public and private benefit plans.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for January 2006, 4.4 percent of all females 75 years and older are in the labor force and that includes part- and full-time workers. In total U.S. employment, only one-third of 1 percent or 454,000 are in the category of females 75 years and older. The bureau doesn’t publish statistics on people Crowe’s age in the workforce.
Unlike Crowe, most older Americans who decide to continue in the workforce are part-time employees. According to the 65+ federal report, in 2003 about half of employed men 70 and older and about two-thirds of women 70 and over who were employed worked part-time. The reasons for staying in the workforce past full retirement age vary but the report says that people 62 and over most often cite enjoyment of working as the reason they continue.
Crowe graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1942 with a degree in elementary education and since entering the workforce that year as a sixth-grader teacher, Crowe has never been unemployed. After four years of teaching, Crowe’s brother Paul was elected county court clerk in Monroe County and asked her to work for him as a deputy clerk. In 1954, Crowe succeeded her brother as county court clerk and worked in the position for four years. She was the first female elected to a public office in Monroe County. At 35, she started working for state government in Louisville.
Her varied career has taken her from the small town of Tompkinsville to Louisville. “The first year I taught in a one-room school in Monroe County. We didn’t even know there was another county,” she said laughing. “I got lost the first day finding the building” in downtown Louisville at Second and Walnut streets. In 1960, the office moved to its current location at Sixth and Cedar streets.
“I’ve stayed because I like the job. I have no regrets of working for state government,” she said. “The biggest reward is finding jobs for people and making a change in their lives.”
Crowe’s first state job was as an employment interviewer and she made $300 a month. “At that time it was a reasonable salary. Gas wasn’t $3 a gallon,” she said.
For about 25 years of her OET career Crowe was a supervisor in the Louisville office but she says she is happy not to have supervisory duties now. As a placement interviewer, Crowe counsels and places people in jobs, sets up job tests to determine their skills and refers them to other agencies for help.
Crowe said the biggest change she has seen in the workplace is computers. For most of her career in state government forms had to be filled out by hand by employees but now people can self-register using a computer. Crowe said even though she has only had a computer in the workplace for a few years, she has never felt intimidated by them.
Many of the people Crowe encounters on her job are at a low point in their lives. “We try to bring their spirits up if we can and tell them to look on the positive side and it will work out,” Crowe said of helping people who are looking for jobs.
Crowe said she often runs into people that she has placed in jobs and some even come by to visit her at the office. In some cases, she has helped people get several jobs over the years and they’re often surprised to see she is still working when they come back to the office.
“People ask me every day ‘Miss Crowe, when are you going to retire?’” said the Louisville resident who has worked under 12 Kentucky governors.
While many workers count the days until they can retire and enjoy the good life, Crowe would be lost without her job and coworkers. Crowe likes to arrive at work at 5:45 a.m., even though she doesn’t officially start on the clock until 7 a.m., and get the office ready for her coworkers and customers. “I’m the first one here. I just like coming in and being busy. I can’t stand to sit. I have to be doing something.”
Crowe said she has been late to work only one day in the 47 years she has worked for state government and she is quick to point out that it wasn’t her fault. She says the condition of the streets in Louisville was so bad they stopped her bus and let people off to get a cup of coffee and that delayed her.
Crowe can quickly pull dates and names from her memory bank without having to look them up like many people half her age. She likes to stay busy at home as well as at work. Among her hobbies, Crowe enjoys gardening and push mowing her lawn. She keeps fit physically by walking two miles a day and stays mentally sharp by doing the Jumbo word puzzle in the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper every day.
Steve Bodnar, assistant manager of the KentuckianaWorks One Stop Career Center, has worked for state government for more than 15 years and he says he expects Crowe will be there when he retires. “Christine is like a rock. Christine is always reliable. Rarely do you come in and Christine isn’t here and ready to go,” he said.
Crowe’s good health has been a big factor in her ability to keep working full time. Except for being off for about eight weeks in 2003 for health reasons, she has been able to work steadily throughout her career. According to the 65+ study, declining health is one of the main reasons that aging Americans decide to retire.
So what does Crowe say when people ask her about when she going to retire? “I’m staying until I’m ready to go,” she says with smile.
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The Kentucky Education Cabinet coordinates learning programs from P-16, and manages and supports training and employment functions in the Department for Workforce Investment. For more information about our programs, visit www.educationcabinet.ky.gov or www.workforce.ky.gov, or call 502-564-6606.
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