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:: Saturday, August 13, 2005 ::

Great-grandmother enjoys work in steel mill - By Paul Glader, The Wall Street Journal via Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Ms. Rooks, who turns 79 next month, says she has no immediate plans to retire from her job as a maintenance janitor at the AK Steel Holding Corp. plant. The great-grandmother says she wants to keep working both for the money and because she thinks she would get bored at home 'looking at four walls every day.'

During a recent morning shift at the mill, Ms. Rooks dons coveralls, earplugs and a hard hat with a protective face shield. Tugging a large red hose, she sprays down equipment to prevent fires and product defects in the 20-ton, red-hot steel slabs that pass through the massive rolling mill, sending sparks and steel shards flying. A factory foreman, Ron Smith, says he worries about her safety, but not about her 'getting the job done.'

Ms. Rooks likes to say that she is the oldest steelworker in the country. A spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America says the union believes that to be true.

posted 5:11 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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