( Cleveland)- With almost 40 years of service with the postal service, Cleveland Postmaster Louise Nix has announced she is retiring.
Nix’s postal career began in 1978 when she started as a clerk at the Dahlonega post office. Ten years later with the retirement of then postmaster Mrs. Josephine Head, she was named postmaster in Cleveland, that was just prior to the building of the current post office building.
Back then Nix said they had five rural carriers, now there are 20 routes, including Helen and Sautee. Another big change has been from dealing mostly with letters to now a large volume of parcel delivery from Amazon and other businesses. According to Nix last week they delivered over 20,000 parcels in White County.
Nix said, “my goal has always been I wanted people to enjoy coming to the post office, not ‘I’ve got to go to the post office’. We wanted everyone to come in and receive a friendly smile and someone to be helpful and, hopefully, we’ve succeeded in that.”
It was a bittersweet decision about leaving her post, one of the key factors was to spend time with her grandchildren. She said it’s time to move on and let someone else take the reins.
Nix said she certainly is not retiring from the community. “I’ve always wanted to be known as somebody who gave more than she took and, hopefully, I can continue to do that. I want to give back to this community that has been so good to me and my family,” said Nix.
Her last day is January 2nd, then she said an officer in charge will be appointed to fill in during the time they post the position internally prior to appointing a new postmaster sometime later in January.
A retirement reception for Nix will be held Wednesday, January 10th from 2-6 PM at the Roy Ash Jr. Community Room in Cleveland.
