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Creamery worker retires Elizabeth Norris went to work at Rogue River Valley Creamery shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked By Greg Stiles CENTRAL POINT � There�s no truth to the rumor that Elizabeth Norris owns or is related to the owners of Rogue River Valley Creamery. It just seems that way. Norris has been almost as big a part of the operation as milk for much of the past 60 years, whether she was serving customers, wrapping cheese or recording butter fat content. Now she�s saying goodbye. Friday, Norris will be honored by co-workers and friends during an open house from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the creamery�s storefront at 311 N. Front St. "People come in and think she must be part owner because she�s been here so long," says Helen McCann, Norris� daughter and a fellow employee. "It�s almost like she�s been here her whole life. She goes to work every day and she�s been very loyal to the company. "Customers will come in and say �That lady knows what I want,� and she does know what they want." From 1942, when she began working part-time at the creamery along Highway 99, through wars and recession and raising eight children, Norris, who turned 73 in May, has been a fixture at the creamery. She remembers when the bleu cheese was first made and the last pound of butter was hauled away. "I reference her a lot of the time when I want to find the history about the place or equipment," says plant manager Kelly Norton. "She remembers this place when it was bustling." There�s an irony that Norris� tenure began months after Pearl Harbor and ends days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. She had a brother aboard the aircraft carrier Louisville whose home port was Pearl Harbor. "It sure did scare us," Norris says. "I understand from his wife that they had left Pearl Harbor a day or two before it was bombed. I don�t think we heard from him for a while. But I know my parents were really saddened." And now that America is once again under attack, the same uneasiness exists. "It�s scary, you know," she says. "You don�t know what lies ahead. You know something is going to happen; we were that way during World War II. We didn�t know if we were going to get bombed right here in Oregon." The only times she wasn�t at work was when her husband was stationed at Fort Dix, N.J., from 1948-52, and short stints here and there. For the past 30 years, however, she was at it day in and day out until July, when she suffered two heart attacks. "I very seldom have stayed home," she says. "It was very scary for me." Less than a month later, she was back at work. But her doctor didn�t want her to get run down, so she decided to retire. "I�m really going to miss work," she says. Norris� parents were friends with Sicilian immigrant Gaetano "Tom" Vella, who founded the creamery in 1935. When given the chance to earn some pocket change at the age of 13, she jumped at the opportunity. "I didn�t work with the machinery, but I was there right along side the men," she says. She recalls the days when 300 clients daily sent milk to be made into butter, cheese or cottage cheese. Five milk trucks went out every morning of the week collecting anywhere from half a can to 15 or 20 10-gallon milk cans. "There was a guy who would pour the 10-gallon cans into a tank and I would weigh it and take a sample of the milk to test for butter fat content, because that�s how they got paid," Norris says. Norris and her husband, Richard, have five children. The first four � Orville, Helen, Frank and Clyde � came in rapid-fire fashion, with Nancy coming along 14 years later in 1967. Richard had three children from a previous marriage � Jeanne, Richard and Jim. All told there are 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. At one point about a decade ago, there were three generations working together when McCann�s daughter Kristi � one of Norris� 18 grandchildren � joined the creamery crew. Soon, there will be one. "The creamery has always been my home away from home," Norris says. " I pretty much worked five days a week all my life and a half-day on Saturday. "I enjoyed meeting people. They say the customer is always right. There weren�t too many cranky ones, but even when they were, they were always right." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.