ELIZABETHTOWN — In 1976, America celebrated its bicentennial, gas was 59 cents a gallon and the average cost of a new home was $43,400.
Agnes McCall, in that same year, first went to work for the Bladen County Public Library. Three years later, about November of 1979, she began full-time as a county employee.
Tuesday night county commissioners recognized her for 40 years of service. In records that date to 1960, officials say no employee has ever worked longer for the county.
“I just love cataloguing,” McCall said. “Filing, stuff like that. Because, I’m just a quiet person. I love to do what I do.”
The 64-year-old said in 1976 she went to the library with her sister, who had a job contract through the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. CETA was an extension of the Works Progress Administration program of the 1930s, and the forerunner to the Job Training Partnership Act. CETA was a 1973 law signed by President Richard M. Nixon, where workers were trained and provided jobs in public service.
“I was working for Evelyn Williford,” McCall said. “She told me to come along because if my sister found a job, I would finish up her contract. So, my sister found a job in New York, and I ended up finishing her contract out.”
That ended in 1979, she left, but later was filling out an application in the employment office when Williford spotted her.
“She said, ‘Agnes, are you looking for a job?’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ She said, ‘Come on down to my office when you finish the application.’ So that’s what I did,” McCall said. “Ever since then, I’ve been working at the library.”
And loving every minute. Right on through eight different librarians to include Kelsey Edwards, who praised her work and marveled at her longevity in remarks to the audience Tuesday.
Chairman Ray Britt made the presentation to McCall, and she thanked Edwards and all the commissioners standing around her. Eleven other county employees were also honored for service time in the ceremony.
For context, consider that since she began this amazing 40-year run technology has given us personal computers, VCRs, cable and satellite television, satellite radio, even camcorders which went obsolete to cellphone video.
A fair amount of those advances impacted libraries and how they operate, too.
McCall has done most everything out of the Cypress Street location. She says it was the children’s program where she started. She recalls times visiting the homebound. She’s been a librarian assistant and she now is the assistant director.
McCall was born and raised in Clarkton and now resides in Bladenboro. The 1973 graduate of the old Clarkton High School, who went to Booker T. Washington High School before integration, is beloved by her mother, two sisters, one daughter and two grandchildren. She stays active outside of work with her church family, New Covenant Christian Faith Church Ministries in Fayetteville.
McCall advanced her education with classes at Bladen Community College, and earned a two-year degree in library technology through online classes with Central Carolina Community College in Sanford.
The big question: how much longer?
“I plan to retire in two more years,” she says. “Once I turn 66, that’s my plan.”
In honoring Agnes McCall (center) for 40 years of service to Bladen County, commissioners Chairman Ray Britt expresses gratitude and kids her about how much longer she might continue working. Librarian Kelsey Edwards (left) marveled at the assistant director’s longevity and praised her work ethic for Tuesday’s audience.
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