PORTAGEVILLE -- Associated Electric Cooperative employee Judy Johnson thought she would work a few months of vacation time in 1982 at the New Madrid Power Plant before going back to teach school. Yet, more than 30 years later, she finds herself retiring after 30 years at the power plant. Nearly 24 of those years were in the plant's warehouse.
"I wasn't planning to stay at the time," said Johnson, who started as a general utility first period. "It was a whole new world. I cut yards, hauled trash, whatever they had you do."
Johnson graduated in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in education from Southeast Missouri State University. She was hired by the U.S. Department of Defense to teach school to the children of Americans serving in the armed forces stationed in Germany. She said the pay and the people made her want to stay in her new job with Associated.
At New Madrid, Johnson progressed to auxiliary operator and continued to advance in operations. During her cooperative career, she was assistant control room operator before going to work in the warehouse. Johnson summarized her warehouse job simply, which doesn't reveal the thousands of parts she must track. "I fill the order for what they (employees) ask for." And, she loves it. "Everybody comes in, they're friendly, and I'm busy."
Johnson and the rest of the New Madrid warehouse staff received Associated's prestigious, peer-nominated 1996 Excel Team of the Year Award. In 2010, she was Safety Person of the Month and has been a union steward 20 years.