Judy Green can’t remember the exact date she began working at the Neosho Daily News, but she thinks she has been there for 27 years.

People who come to the offices of the newspaper in Neosho are not likely to meet Judy. To find her, it’s necessary to follow a winding trail through the front offices, beyond the advertising department and newsroom, then past composition and the lunch room and then, through a couple of doors to the inserting department.

That’s where Judy Green has been working all those 27 years.

When she first began, Judy worked only part time, and she only worked when she got a call to come in to help. At that time, she was also driving a school bus for Westview School, running a paper route, and selling Avon products.

Now, she has given up her school bus and paper routes, but she still works at the newspaper and she still sells Avon.

Even though she no longer runs a rural paper route, Judy has not forgotten how to do it. Her husband, Roger, still runs a route west of Neosho and, on occasion, Judy goes along for the ride.

“I really enjoy the route,” she admitted. “You meet a lot of nice people. Roger knows everyone on the route and he usually takes time to speak to them when he sees them.
He has one man who waits at the mailbox for him. If the man’s not there, Roger worries about him.”

After the tornado, Roger stopped and visited with everyone on his route who was struck by the storm.

While Judy does miss that interaction with subscribers, she enjoys working in the insertion department. Even though she has been there longer than anyone (and longer than most everyone at the newspaper), she doesn’t have a title.

“I told them I don’t want one,” she smiled. “I just want to do a good job. They all call me the assistant manager, but I just work. Everybody here knows what to do. They don’t need a boss.”

At times, inserting the special advertising features into the newspaper can be monotonous. But Judy says the inserters have a good time. Most of the inserting is now done by a machine, but there are still some ads that are put together in packets. These are sometimes done by hand.

“We have lots of funny moments,” Judy said. “And we don’t let much disturb us.”

On occasion, when machinery breaks down or there’s something at the last minute, calls for help are sent out to the rest of the employees in the building. Answering the call, others come back to help out.

“We enjoy working with the newsroom,” Judy said. “I think it’s good for us to be with them and I think they learn to appreciate what we do. They soon get the hang of it. I think Buzz Ball was the best we ever had out of the newsroom. We were really surprised at how he could insert.”

Most days, Judy’s job is finished by 2 p.m. That gives her time to get home and do other things. While she doesn’t have many hobbies, she does like to garden and work in her yard.

“I’m really getting anxious this year,” Judy said. “I’m about to run out of green beans. I need to get some canned.”

Judy and Roger have also spent many years adding to, and remodeling their home.

“When we first moved there, it was just a small three-room house, but we’ve added on quite a bit,” she said. “Maybe one day we’ll get it finished.”

Judy doesn’t know how much longer she will work, but she has no plans to stop any time soon.

“I like to work here,” she said as she stuffed another ad into the “Sunday packet.”

“I don’t know what else I would do,” she said. “This is not hard work. You just have to be here and get it done. You just have to be dependable.”

And dependable is perhaps the best word to describe Today’s Woman—Judy Green.