PORT ANGELES — For more than 35 years, neither rain nor snow, chimney fires nor freight trains could keep Joan Morrish from her appointed rounds — those of delivering the Peninsula Daily News.
But on Friday, Morrish delivered her last newspaper.
On Saturday, she celebrated with a retirement party attended by dozens of friends, family, customers and co-workers.
“They wanted to make sure I have a wonderful retirement,” Morrish said.
A third-generation Port Angeles resident, Morrish, 68, spent three and a half decades delivering papers on a single east Port Angeles paper route — years of getting to know her customers, the local wildlife and the police.
“I’m on a first-name basis with 9-1-1,” Morrish said.
Being on the road and becoming familiar with each customer’s address, Morrish became familiar with what should be happening at a certain house and what should not.
She has reported chimney fires, car wrecks and when a house just didn’t look “right,” she said.
But Morrish said she didn’t stick around to learn what the police found. Instead, once the authorities were alerted to a situation, she was off to finish her route.
She was a newly single mother in 1976, working two part-time jobs in addition to her newspaper route, she said.
Her 4-year-old daughter, Paula Grimes, would ride along with her, seat-belted but sitting on top of a pile of papers or often napping under a pile of Peninsula Daily News copies.
“If she forgot her blanket, we discovered that the newspapers would keep her warm,” Morrish said.
Eventually, Morrish built up her route to the point that she could survive on just the deliveries and quit her additional jobs.
In 2000, she was named PDN Carrier of the Year by publisher John Brewer, who estimated that Morrish had driven 500,000 miles, delivered 3 million copies of the newspaper, and had a complaint ratio of only 0.25 per 1,000 newspapers delivered — one service error for every 4,000 papers.
Since then, she has added thousands more miles and newspapers delivered.
“As the readers on your route sit at their kitchen tables and read their papers over hot cups of coffee, they have you to thank for it,” Brewer said in a letter of congratulations on Morrish’s retirement.
At the height of her route, Morrish drove 87 miles each day, had 777 customers, and has gone through at least 10 cars, she said.
When the PDN was an afternoon delivery paper, more than a decade ago, Morrish said she was able to meet and get to know many of those customers.
Morrish has also had her share of challenges.
During the early days of her route, the Port Angeles-to-Port Townsend freight train schedule was just a bit behind her own.
“If I was late, we would get caught behind the train,” she said, adding that her route crossed the railroad track four times — and she would often have to stop for the train four times.
The conductor even learned to recognize Morrish and her daughter and would toot the train’s horn in greeting, she said.
Morrish said that since the paper’s schedule was shifted to early morning delivery, the route takes as much as an hour less to complete because of the lack of traffic, but there is less direct contact with customers, many of whom became friends over the years, she said.
Morrish has had encounters with bear, raccoon and, more commonly, deer — but never a mountain lion or elk, she said.
One of her favorite animal stories had to with Barney, a dog along her route that fetched the paper.
“If his people weren’t home, he would bury the paper,” Morrish said.
At one point, Barney broke his leg, but despite the injury, he would hobble out of the house to meet her to get the paper, she said.
Sometimes weather made delivery difficult.
Morrish kept a copy of a report she once left for the PDN’s circulation manager, detailing a daytime delivery during a major winter storm in the early 1980s.
“This is a not-so-typical day,” Morrish said.
1:30 p.m. — Left office.
2 p.m. — Stuck in unplowed road in 4 Seasons Park.
2:20 p.m.— Back on road trying to put out bills.
4 p.m. — Accident on steep hill on Blue Mountain Road. Pickup truck spun out, spilling passenger, running over her. Left my assistant to help — went to nearby residence to call WSP and aid car — returned to help until aid car arrived.
5:15 p.m. — Finally left Blue Mountain Road.
5:30 p.m. — At Barr Road lost CV joint in front wheel drive of car. Called wrecker and No. 1 son to bring his car.
6:10 p.m. — Back on the road.
8:05: p.m. — Pushed last paper.
Morrish turned her route over to Dave Johnson of Joyce. He has been her substitute delivery person for more than 10 years.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
