Bertha Batie and Willie Jones officially retired from their positions at the Troy Housing Authority Thursday night with a combined 75 and a half years of service.

Batie and Jones were honored with a dinner at The Pines and received the congratulations and best wishes of family and co-workers.

Ken Vaughan, THA executive director, said Batie and Jones have been exemplary employees and will be missed in many different ways.

Batie has been with the THA for 39 and a half years. The late Joel Witherington, who was the executive director at that time, went to Batie’s house and offered her the job.

“From the first day, I’ve enjoyed my job,” said Batie, who retired as site manager AMP 3. “I loved working with the tenants and I loved the tenants. We all go along so well – the coworkers and the tenants. The greatest reward of my job was working with the tenants and helping them with any problems they had.”

Batie said she will miss the day-to-day contact with her co-works and the positive relationships that she had with the tenants.”

“But now it’s time for me to do some things that I want to do,” she said. “I said I was going to do a little of nothing but I need to stay busy. So, I want to work part time somewhere and I’m going to do more with my church. I’ll stay busy now that I’m retired.”

Jones retired from the THA with 36 years as maintenance mechanic assistant and he, too, was hired by Witherington.

“The Troy Housing Authority is a good place to work,” Jones said. “I really enjoyed working with my coworkers and I enjoyed working with the tenants, too. They are all good people. Everybody at the Troy Housing Authority gets along good and that makes it a nice place to work.”

Jones said he never looked anywhere else for work because he realized that, by working at the THA, he could take care of his family.

“I sent four children to college and one of them is a doctor,” he said. “The job helped me do that and I’m proud for it.”

Jones said he’s got his fishing rods ready and going fishing is the first thing on his to-do retirement list.

“And, I’ve got seven grandchildren and I’m going to do things with them,” he said.

Vaughan congratulated Batie and Jones on their long and distinguished careers with the Troy Housing Authority.

“They always put the safety and well-being of the tenants first,” he said. “We are going to miss them both, all of us.”