Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Peggy Conley estimates she has delivered 4.5 million newspapers in 47 years as a carrier.
She also said she used 10 different cars to deliver the news.
The Times-Union carrier delivered her last paper on Wednesday.
She started delivering newspapers for the company in 1970. Before that, she worked in the newspaper’s advertising department.
Conley began delivering papers as way to help pay tuition for her son, who was enrolled in Warsaw Christian School.
In her four decades of delivering the newspaper, she kept the same route, which stretched from Argonne Road to Kosciusko Community Hospital and over to Ind. 15.
Carriers used to do their own billing, so she said she got to know her customers.
“They became my friends,” she said.
One of her original customers still receives the paper from her.
She left a note as Conley delivered her last paper on Wednesday.
Over the years as she had more children, she would take them with her on routes.
When her girls were young she would put them in a cardboard box in the back seat. They would take their naps while she delivered papers.
As the kids got older, they would take turns sitting in the passenger seat and pitching papers toward front doors.
Conley said she had seen her share of poor weather, including the blizzard of 1978. She said she had a three-day pile up of papers.
She remembers the blizzard was so bad that cars were covered in snow.
While most officials advised people to stay off the roads, they tried delivering papers with her son riding on the running board as he put papers in the boxes.
She said she’s seen a lot of changes in the newspaper with the rise of the internet.
But she said she hopes newspapers will always have a place in society.
