Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408080015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER PULASKI
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Robert ``Chicken'' Viars, 69, and Stuart ``Smitty'' Smith, 66, each marked their half-century anniversary with the yarn-processing company in July. That makes them the senior employees still working at the plant, except for Jesse Hopkins, who hit his 50-year mark two years ago.
Jefferson Mills marked the occasion with a picnic on the plant site in Pulaski, celebrating what it called ``Old-Timers' Day.''
The company has a lot of old-timers. Of its 375 employees, nearly 29 percent have been with the company for more than 20 years.
It often finds other family members in its ranks. Viars' has two grown sons, Timmy and Robert Jr., who have worked at the plant and a brother, Willie, who has 41 years with Jefferson Mills. Smith's wife, Nellie, worked there for 35 years. His sister and late brother also worked there.
Viars, who has worked as a cleaner for his entire 50 years at Jefferson Mills, got his job after overcoming a crippling disability left from a bout of polio.
``I couldn't walk when I was 15 years old,'' he said, and must still tread carefully.
Viars grew up in Max Meadows in Wythe County, where he still lives. When he learned of the possibility of working at Jefferson Mills despite his disability, he went to the Pulaski train depot and waited all night for a job interview with then-Plant Manager E.G. Hill.
``I came down here and sat on the depot porch all night long,'' he said. The next morning, he applied for the job.
Pulaski police officers came by during the night and asked him what he was doing. When he explained, they offered to take him to an overnight shelter at the Salvation Army. ``And I told them, 'No,' if I wasn't bothering anybody, I'd just sit there.''
Smith was hired as a stock handler and steamer in 1944. Except for 18 months in the Army, he has worked at Jefferson Mills in a variety of jobs until about 1972, when he was asked to take a truckload of the plant's products to North Carolina.
``I always did like to fool with trucks and cars,'' he said. He has been driving 18-wheelers for Jefferson Mills for more than two decades. ``It averages close to 2,000 miles a week, what I run,'' he said.
His citizens band radio handle is ``Grasshopper.'' He estimates that he has driven more than 2 million miles for Jefferson Mills.
``I'm on the road all the time. I was supposed to be headed to Alabama today,'' he said on the day of the picnic honoring him and Viars, ``but they wouldn't let me go.''
by CNB