By Susan Redden
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Jerry Clemmons is enjoying his new-found retirement.
But he also enjoyed working 43 years at the Joplin Workshops, a job he retired from earlier this month.
“I’m 65; it was time,” said Clemmons on Wednesday while sitting in the lunchroom at Spring River Christian Village in Joplin, where he has lived for the last two years.
Ron Sampson, executive director of the facility, said Clemmons is one of two of the 15 original employees on staff at the sheltered workshop when it first opened its doors in 1966.
“He’s a great worker,” Sampson said. “He was always here unless he had vacation and he was always proud of how long he’d been here,” Sampson said.
Sampson said Clemmons also brightened the days for other workers and staff with his humor and friendly attitude. That trait also has traveled to Spring River.
“He likes to joke with the staff and other residents and visitors,” said Peggy Wimbish, activities director. “He can be ornery.”
“Ornery” was the description of Clemmons offered by Joy Henson, who is now the last remaining worker among those at the workshop when it first opened.
“We were the last two,” she said. “I miss him because we joked a lot.”
A bout with cerebral palsy left Clemmons with limited use of his left leg and no use of his left hand. He said that contributed a bit to his decision to retire, because lifting had become more difficult.
“I can stand and walk, and I was always able to work really fast with my right hand,” he said.
Both Clemmons and Henson worked primarily assembly and packaging jobs under contract with local companies. The operation, now at Fifth Street and Michigan Avenue, was nearby, on School Avenue, when he started, Clemmons said.
There were fewer workers then, and less to do.
“It got better when we got more contracts and had more to do,” he said.
Early jobs included refinishing furniture, sorting cartons for soft drink companies, and recycling.
The workforce has grown to nearly 150, with operations that include Healthcare Linen Specialists, a commercial laundry program serving primarily the health care industry.
Clemmons and Henson “matured along with the workshop” Sampson said, as part of the organizations Mid-America Solutions component that provides sorting, assembly, packaging and other services for a number of local industries.
Henson, who is 64, said she’s not considered retirement plans and intends to stay on at the workshop for a while longer.
“I have a lot of friends here,” she said.
Clemmons said he was 18 when he started at the workshop. Earlier, he had worked as a janitor for Carterville schools and at other locations.
“I liked it,” he said of his time at the workshop.
“I’d rather work than stay home and depend on my parents. They helped me too, but I had my own money,” he said.
His father died when he was 48 years old, Clemmons said, and his mother died at 78. He lived with his mother until her death at their home in Carterville. He moved then, he said, because he was not able to maintain the house.
Clemmons doesn’t spend that much time in his assisted living apartment at Spring River, Wimbish said.
“He’s always out talking and joking with other residents,” she said.
“Everybody knows me all over the place,” he agreed. “And I like to joke; when other people laugh, it makes me happy.”
He also enjoys music, particularly the country-western concerts held each month, Wimbish said.
“Sometimes he sings along,” she said.”He can be entertaining.”
