7/12/07
Rural postal carrier Imogene Mathis retires after 17 years
By Eric Goold

Submitted Photo

Alcolu Postmaster Melissa Wingard, left, presents Imogene Mathis with a certificate of retirement as past Postmaster Cecil Carter, right, applauds in a ceremony at the Alcolu Post Office Friday.

Submitted Photo

New rural postal carrier Margaret Lynn Brunson, left, shares a smile and a laugh with retiring carrier Imogene Mathis, middle, and her husband Don, during a ceremony for Mathis at the Alcolu Post Office last Friday.

Submitted Photo

Customers from Rural Post Route 1 gathered to honor retiring postal carrier Imogene Mathis last Friday in a ceremony at the Alcolu Post Office. From left to right are Rudy and Brenda Morris, Mathis, and Carrie Sinkler-Parker.

The Alcolu Post Office staff said goodbye and thanks to one of its finest on Friday morning.

After an impressive 17 years of faithful service, rural postal carrier Imogene Mathis called it a career and retired.

“Imogene’s work ethic was second to none,” said past Alcolu Postmaster Cecil Carter, who originally hired Mathis. Carter was the keynote speaker in a small retirement ceremony for Mathis held at the Alcolu Post Office.

“Year in and year out,” said Carter, “her customer complaints were zero.”

Mathis leaves the Postal Service to join her husband Don in retirement.

At the ceremony on Friday, Rev. Kirk Carlisle of the Clarendon Baptist Church gave the invocation.

Also speaking was Alcolu Postmaster Melissa Wingard, Manning Postal Supervisor Chad Smith and Communications Coordinator Harry Spratlin of the Greater South Carolina District in Columbia.

Wingard presented Mathis with a special letter of thanks and an award certificate during the ceremony.

Mathis spent her years carrying mail on Rural Route 1 and several of her customers along that route were represented at the ceremony. Anessa Alfred, Brenda and Rudy Morris, Carrie Sinkler-Parker, Willie Gibson and L.G. Blackwell were all on hand to offer their thanks and congratulations to Mathis, their dependable mail carrier.

Mathis came to the job in 1989, when she originally served as a substitute carrier for her father, Harold McCoy.

Special thanks go to Spratlin, who provided the information for this story as well as the photos from the ceremony.