The daughter of Jim and Marilyn Conrey, who owned Jim’s Foodland in West Liberty for decades, Wever started work as a cashier for her parents in 1974 at the age of 14 and even stocked shelves and performed other duties in the store with her brother, Jim P., after her parents opened the store in 1968.
She was a star employee, not only working as a cashier, but getting involved in pricing, trouble-shooting and even helping set up a new scanner system. But in 1992, her parents sold the store and she set out to find something new.
Encouraged to become a postal clerk by postmaster Zeta Barnett, Wever applied and tested with about 250 other applicants for postal jobs in Davenport, beating out a couple other applicants for the West Liberty position of postal clerk, which also could include some door-to-door mail delivery.
Her first five years, she walked about five miles a day delivering mail to households and businesses on the west side of Columbus Street and north of downtown, taking about three hours after about an hour of sorting.
The hard work paid off into an inside position as postal clerk, but there were still times she could have to deliver mail or packages, sometimes seven days a week. She said it all depended on the volume of mail.
Keeping with the postal creed of “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” Wever said there were definitely great days to deliver mail as well as terrible days.
