USPS logo LINK — USPS employee news Printable

Career fulfillment

Stamp Services employee marks 50 years on job

Woman stands near table with cake
Louise Beale, a Stamp Services order entry supervisor in Kansas City, MO, stands near a display at a recent party to mark the 50th year of her postal career.

Louise Beale’s family thinks spending a half-century with the same employer is unusual. She tells them that they don’t know the Postal Service.

Beale, a Kansas City, MO, order entry supervisor, recently celebrated 50 years of postal employment — 48 of them in Stamp Services.

She began her career in 1968 as a clerk at the main Post Office in Washington, DC. Two years later, she approached her managers to express interest in a detail assignment.

Beale was soon offered one in Philatelic Sales, which is now known as Stamp Services.

Stamp fulfillment looked different back then.

“We processed stamp orders manually for customers,” she said. “We had an editing section that received requests and I would help open and sort them. There was one big vault that contained all the stamps.”

Beale’s colleagues are amazed at her postal tenure.

“Most of them tell me they weren’t even born when I started at the Postal Service,” she said. “Others tell me they don’t know anyone who has worked this long.”

Her manager, Linda Houghtaling, said Beale stands out.

“A lot of the employees go to Louise for advice and she always has time and is very helpful,” Houghtaling said. “She has the most positive attitude, in both her personal and professional life.”

Beale said working at USPS has taught her a lot.

“I learned how to save money for a rainy day and was able to send my kids to college,” she said.

Recalling what led her to Stamp Services, Beale added: “I also learned how to stand up and speak for myself.”

Post-story highlights