Shirley at work in the library on her 80th birthday © Paul Brown/ Mary Evans Picture Library
This in from Mary Evans MD Paul Brown:
“As Mary Evans Picture Library celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, it seems some of our employees are also reaching some important birthday milestones. Among them is Shirley Evans [Mary’s sister-in-law], our erstwhile administrative assistant, who will be celebrated her 80th birthday on Thursday 30th January. Eight decades young, Shirley reports for work at the library where she holds a part-time post and can often be found re-filing among the cabinets, sorting the post, or insisting on washing up the team’s coffee cups. We wonder – is Shirley the oldest employee currently in the picture library industry?
This was shot (above image) on her 80th birthday, so she is a few days older than that now.
Actually, Shirley just passed another milestone… last week was her 20th year working at the library. So she started at the very young age of 60! When she retired as a teacher (one of her students was Jude Law!!), she wanted to keep herself busy and so started working at the library.
Paul – you could have given her the day off!!