Walgreens’ Longest-Service Employee Retires After Nearly 70 Years With The Company: ‘Time Passes Fast’

After making history as Walgreens’ longest-serving employee, an 88-year-old Tennessee woman has ended her 67 years of service with retirement.

Melba Russell began working at Walgreens in 1956, she told WREG. At the age of 19, she began working the lunch counter at a Downtown Memphis location where she said she sold slices of strawberry pie for 35 cents.

“When I went to work, I planned on six months, and that jumped many years. I enjoyed it,” Russell told the outlet. “Time passes fast.”

Russell then worked for several years as an assistant manager at a store in Huntsville, Alabama, after her husband got a work transfer. After moving back to Tennessee, Russell worked for 25 years at a location in Whitehaven before deciding to retire in May 2023. She initially had never planned to retire, but made the decision due to a bad hip.

“I thought, well, I enjoy my work, so why quit, you know? All my kids live out of town. So, it just takes up time,” Russell told WREG. She said her hip has since healed.

One of Russell’s favorite parts of her job was supervising the big trucks unloading stock, but the part she misses most about her job is her customers and coworkers. She shared that she still keeps in touch with them and they meet up every once in a while.

“All the employees were so sweet, and they still are. We have lunch sometimes,” she told the outlet. “I miss getting up and seeing all the employees. That was my family.”

According to a Walgreens post about her retirement, the company was family for her in more ways than one. Her children applied for jobs with the company during their college days.

After being at the company for decades, Russell has seen her stores and the company undergo many changes. “There weren’t too many Walgreens when I started, but then they started this program of building 12 stores a year. And that's when we got stores on every corner,” she told the company's website.

Russell will turn 89 on Wednesday. She still drives and she does not plan to take it easy anytime soon. She told the WREG, “You don’t retire and just sit down. I mean, you got to keep moving, or they say you are going to lose it.”