Marjorie Potts

SALEM — The Salem Area Visiting Nurse Association plans to recognize employees during a party today, including Marjorie Potts, who’s still working at the age of 81 after 45 years with the agency.

Potts hit the milestone anniversary on Nov. 1 and currently holds the position of hospital liaison, working part-time three days a week, but her nursing career began back in 1957 when she graduated from the Huron Road Hospital with a diploma in nursing and became a surgical nurse at the Central Clinic & Hospital in Salem.

SAVNA Office Manager Cathy Kress said everybody knows Marge. She’s a familiar face to anybody who’s rolled down their window at the drive-up flu clinic at the Third Street location. She oversees the flu shot program and administers the shots inside the building, too.

Her co-workers threw a sort-of retirement party for her many years ago at their former building off of East Pershing Street, but she’s never been one to sit still for too long, always lending a hand for something, whether it’s for nursing, her church or volunteering her time to community events such as the Banquet in Salem, the Thanksgiving dinner at the Memorial Building or the recent Gingerbread Day.

“Marge is the most dedicated person I know. She volunteers for everything. She shows up at every event we have. She’s the best well-known visiting nurse we have ever had and she is still working,” SAVNA Executive Director Susan Yoder, R.N., said.

Kress said they’ve honored her several times and thought recognition in a story would be special, espccially as a surprise.

Potts graduated from Salem High School in 1954 as Marjorie Jensen. Her nursing career took her out of Salem for a little over a decade when she became a staff nurse at a hospital and worked for a doctor in Utica, New York in the early sixties. She worked as a surgical nurse for the National Orthopedic and Rehab Hospital in Arlington, Va. in 1964 and 1965, then returned to Ohio in 1966 as a staff nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Lorain.

From January 1971 to August 1972, she worked as a surgical nurse at Grant Hospital in Columbus, returning to her hometown of Salem in November 1972 and joining the SAVNA as a visiting nurse, then nursing supervisor and now hospital liaison. During some of that time, she also worked for the Family Practice Center in Salem.

Kress said she has the longest tenure at the SAVNA, with the next closest nurse set to celebrate her 40th year in 2018. For Marjorie Potts, it will be year 46.

“She’s a great person,” Kress said.