As she nears her 74th birthday, Rosalee Johnson thanks God every morning when she gets up that she still is able to work at a job she loves.
"I never dread coming in here, never dread it at all," said Johnson, a lobby hostess at McDonald's on Highway 53.
Johnson, who has worked in that position for nearly six years, is the eldest and longest serving senior citizen at the Poplar Bluff McDonald's restaurants, according to owner Steve Sells.
"'Steve, when I first started, he said: 'Rosalee, you got any more sisters or anyone wanting a job,'" Johnson recalled. "He said he would like to clone me ... they do make me feel good."
Johnson, who, along with five other crew members, was chosen to be featured on the restaurant's tray liners, didn't set out to be a McDonald's employee.
"I worked at Gates Rubber for 22 years ... I was 63 when I retired from there," Johnson explained.
Johnson's job at Gates required wearing steel-toe shoes and standing as she packed belts "forever" in a portion of the building with no air conditioning.
"You've got to be tough in this old world; that's the way I look at it," Johnson said. "If you got to work, you've got to work."
As one of 11 children, Johnson said, she learned about work early in life.
"We always helped mom; we canned," Johnson said. "We washed them old fruit jars. Of course, we didn't want to, but we did it."
When it came time to can peaches, "with 11 kids, you had to have a bunch," Johnson said. "She didn't buy two or three bushels; it'd be five or six.
"Then, here we would sit out on the front porch and just peel peaches."
Two years after she married in 1964, Johnson said, she and her husband moved to the Oglesville/Qulin area, where they farmed.
"In '77, I told my husband I want a job where I get paid every week (and) have a little bit of money," Johnson recalled.
At that point, Johnson said, she went to work for Noel, a Poplar Bluff company, that made Christmas ornaments.
Johnson said she continued to work for the company after it changed names and still was employed there when it closed in 1983. She went to work at Gates the next year.
For the first couple of years after Johnson's retirement from Gates, she said, she really didn't do anything, but "walk the road, just walked. ... I just did a lot of walking; I lived out in the country."
After a while, Johnson said, she decided she didn't want to stay at home.
"My friend, she was staying with Patty's (Boyers) mom," Johnson said. " ... I said I guess I would like to do that. ... I started helping her."
Johnson said she cared for the woman until her death and then began staying with another woman.
When that woman was put in a nursing home, "I would stop in here (McDonald's) about every morning before I went to the nursing home," Johnson explained.
One day, she said, she told Sandy Alexander, the then lobby hostess: "'I think I would like do this, but I might be too old.'"
Alexander, she said, told her she wasn't too old and encouraged her to fill out an application.
At the time of that conversation, "Steve, Kathy and Tony were sitting over there," pointing to spot in the restaurant, Johnson said. "They heard me talking.
"Tony (Seabaugh, director of operations) said: 'I want her.' Kathy (Snow, area supervisor) said: 'No sir, I want her.'"
Johnson said she preferred working at the Highway 53 location.
After filling out an application the next day, she said, she was hired. The end of October will be her sixth year with McDonald's.
As lobby hostess, Johnson said, she tries to keep the lobby clean.
"I just do everything; I take orders out to people ... I greet the people, the customers, and I love it," said Johnson, who described "everybody" as being so nice.
Johnson works at McDonald's from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
"You're supposed to take a half hour (lunch break). I only take about 15 minutes, go out to my car, eat a little bite," said Johnson, who estimates she's on her feet 5 hours and 45 minutes each shift.
"I do a lot of walking, but I like it," she said.
Then, on Tuesdays and Fridays, she said, she stays with "Miss Pauline," an 87-year-old retired school teacher, who has suffered a stroke.
"I'm telling you, she is wonderful; she's very witty," Johnson said. "We have so much fun."
Caring for the women, Johnson said, has been "nothing" compared to working at Gates.
"It was wonderful," she said. "I couldn't have stayed with any nicer people."
Johnson said she stays busy with work and all her activities, "but I love it.
"... I just honestly, truly I just love coming in. (Sells) asked me when I wanted to retire ... If they want to put up with me, I'll be here" until "I ain't able to come in."
Although she has high blood pressure, "I guess I'm in pretty good health," she said. "I'll be 74 in December, but I feel real good.
"When I'm here working, I don't hurt one bit. If I ever sit down, my knees, I can't hardly get up, but once I'm up, I'm fine."
Johnson said she looks forward to coming to work
"What am I gonna do" otherwise, she said. "I figure I get my exercise up here.
" ... When you sit with nothing to look forward to, you think 'Gosh, is this it?'"
Johnson said she leaves it all in "God's hands. I think he has blessed me; he has truly blessed me.
"I thank him every morning when I wake up. I'm so thankful I can get up and do this. Then, when I do come in, everybody is so nice. Why wouldn't you want to be with people?"
What Johnson doesn't understand, she said, is why people think they don't have to work.
"My mom, she raised 11 kids," she said. "You've got to work; you just can't sit around, doing nothing and expect people to hand it to ya. What kind of person are you gonna be?"
Johnson admits her life hasn't always been good.
"I had some bad, bad times in my life," but with God's help, she said, she got through them. "Now, I couldn't be more happy."
When Johnson is not working, she said, she enjoys spending time with her family, especially her first granddaughter, Summer Ray, and her first great-granddaughter, "Marni Bea," who is 2 1/2.
"I just enjoy her so much," Johnson said. "She'll come over; she'll run to maw maw. She's my world."
When Johnson calls the girl "Marni Bea, she says, "No, my name's Marni,'" said Johnson, who also spends time with her brother, Joe, who lives at Puxico.
"I go over there every weekend or every other weekend and help him, be there with him," she said.
Johnson's advice to her children and grandchildren is having "God in your life, put Him first, then you've got to work.
"Handouts just don't get it; they never did get it with us."
Being kind and respectful also are important, she said.
"If you don't feel good about yourself (and) show people that you do care, how will people think of you," Johnson said.
Should Johnson decide to retire, she said, she would "miss out on lots of life, lots of things in life.
"People, that's what it's all about," she said. "If you're sitting by yourself with no friends, that's no life. The world revolves around people."