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