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CNN Live At Daybreak

Marshall Fields Employee on the Job Since 1919

Aired June 27, 2002 - 05:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There used to be a time when people spent their entire career at the same company. Well, a woman named Annie Milner knows all about that. She started working the same year women were allowed to vote, and she has not stopped since, not even for her 100th birthday.

Reporter Ken Speake from our affiliate KARE in Minneapolis has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEN SPEAKE, KARE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One expects to see someone famous arriving by limousine. This was someone really special. Annie Milner, who has worked for the Marshall Fields Company since 1919, the year American women were given the right to vote.

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Happy birthday dear Annie...

SPEAKE: Yes, Annie Milner was on her way to work on her 100th birthday.

ANNIE MILNER: Have you seen my picture?

SPEAKE: There was good reason to take pictures. It's not often a person's colleagues line the hall and applaud as she arrives at work.

MILNER: Thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, Annie.

MILNER: Thank you.

SPEAKE: Ann Milner does fulfillment work. Six hours a day, five days a week, she phones other Marshall Fields' stores to find merchandise for customers. Not today.

MILNER: Oh, oh, beautiful. Isn't that beautiful? I'll bet there are a hundred in there.

SPEAKE: A hundred lovely roses. And the pictures...

MILNER: Where's Liz?

SPEAKE: And a heavy schedule.

MILNER: Party at 11. Party at two. A limousine at four. You should have seen that limousine. Did you see that limousine I came in?

SPEAKE: Her colleagues are amazed at Annie Milner. They know how wonderfully unusual she is. And more than once they have thought the feeling she voiced on the 75th anniversary of her hiring.

MILNER: I want to thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday.

MILNER: It's a pleasant surprise that I can get around. I hope about 10, 15 years more.

SPEAKE: Now, it was 83 years of employment and Annie Milner is 100 years old and going strong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good for you, Annie.

That was Ken Speake from affiliate KARE.

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