The mail lady, Patsy Larry, to retire after 30 years

Patsy Larry will retire on June 30 after thirty years with the U.S. Postal Service.

Patsy Larry’s ID with the Post Office.

“Nothing but love there, for my co-workers; those people out there will forever be my family,” said an emotional Larry as she reflected on her fellow postal service employees.

Her post office career started when Larry moved to Los Angeles in 1986. She was able to get on with the Post Office in 1992 and started delivering mail on Beverly Boulevard to 700 addresses. Larry explains, “I met a lot of stars. Beverly Hills was a couple of blocks down. I was between Fairfax and LaBrea. Right by the Farmer’s Market.”

Larry moved back to Mississippi in April of 2000 and worked at two locations in the Jackson area before coming to Vicksburg. “I moved into this house in ’69. My mother and father bought this house,” she stated. In 1969, Vicksburg was, according to Larry, “Everyone was like family. All the people we knew, we were family. Some of us are still here.”

Patsy Larry with her first cousin in an undated photo.

Now, 20-plus years later, Larry is retiring in that home. “I was retiring anyway to help take care of Brody.” Brody Larry, 8, succumbed to DIPG in January of this year. “But after Brody, I knew I was going to go then. I still get emotional, I loved him so much and we did everything we could do to help him. I know it was just meant to be.”

After he passed, “I felt so much love! My coworkers, everybody. My coworkers kept my life normal. They let me talk about him and I might have said the same thing about him over and over but nobody ever made me feel like I was doing too much about it. They still tell me the stories now that I told them about Brody. They just rallied around me.” In fact, the entire community rallied around her, her daughter Bridgette and her family. Larry also has a son, Kevin who has two daughters.

Standing: Yolanda Watson. Kneeling: Master Sgt. Stewart, Sgt. Smith, Brody Larry, and Master Sgt. Smith (photo by David Day)

“Now, I’m going to travel. I’m going to go back to LA where I started and visit my friends. I’m going to put my feet in that blue water somewhere over there,” Larry said with a big smile. “Mississippi is home. It’s a place where if I didn’t live here I’d want to live here. The people are why, and the food is pretty good.” Larry chuckled that when she goes out to LA she has to bring her own food.

“I love this place, I love my job and my customers and my co-workers and my boss,” said Larry. She went on to praise her boss, Leslie Coleman and how having a good boss makes such a difference. “She knows her job and takes care of our needs. I consider her a friend.”

Patsy Larry in her childhood home. Photo by David Day taken 10 days before her retirement

Even after 30 years, Larry still has 700 stops and will work them until her last day, June 30. On that day, Larry will be treated by her coworkers to lunch and a well-known local promised to take her out to Beechwood for a celebratory steak.

Larry was emotional realizing it is her last few days, saying, “I love my coworkers so much. I love this town so much. “

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