Greetings from River City.  Looking for an art student to do the Library’s artwork, Newburgh Free Library Director, Helen Eldrige, called Newburgh Free Academy art teacher, Irene McCord.  Ms. McCord asked senior Regina Angelo if she would be interested.    Regina was happy to take the job—she would be doing artwork and the 68 cents an hour was a welcome bonus.
That call l was fateful; it changed Regina’s life.  She had always wanted to be a cartoonist and was headed toward the art courses at Syracuse University.  When 18-year-old Regina Angelo entered the library in the 95-year old building at 100 Grand St. in 1951, she never had a thought that she would be working there for the next 25 years or that it would be the beginning of a 69-year library career.   
Regina started working 9 – 5 every Saturday.  One of her jobs was drawing on stencils and running them off on a mimeograph machine, until the library made a deal with a printer.  The library going from 45 hours per week to 35 hours didn’t change the busy work load.       
The teenager loved the “quaintness and coziness” and the historical beauty of the old building.   The fascinating spiral staircase that led to the upper floor of bookshelves was an unique and beautiful feature (climbing up those stairs was just a tad scary for me, but rather exciting, too), Regina climbed that staircase throughout the day.  Beneath the staircase was Director Eldrige’s desk, until some years later when a room at the back of the library became Miss Eldrige’s office.  
Regina’s illustrations of characters in the books offered, flyers, programs, and seasonal displays were featured on two bulletin boards up front and the small bulletin board in the children’s library. 

In addition to the artwork and filing, Regina mended books that were a bit the worse from use and age.  She had taken a Ramapo Catskill Library System workshop on mending old or abused books.  Every Monday was spent filing for the RCLS.         
Everything was either handwritten or typed, and part of Regina’s work was to check out and check in patron’s books by name, all written on cards by hand ( there were no borrower’s card or charge out machines) arranged in those small drawers and filed by their Dewey Decimal numbers.  Regina remembers, “Each night, at the end of the evening we counted the circulation of the day.”
Within a very few weeks, Regina’s Saturdays became three days a week, and then five. 
“I really liked my job. I wasn’t driving yet, but the Newburgh bus stopped across the street from my house, so I was able to get a ride to and from work,” Regina said, remembering that bit of luck. 
“My Director asked me to do all the filing in the card catalogue and I did this job for many years, also when we moved into the new building at 124 Grand St.  I kept in close communications with Mary Munger, over catalogues.  Mary Munger was the card cataloguer who typed out the cards I filed.”
I’ll bet that a few of you old timers remember the newspaper racks where they hung on “poles” and to read the paper, you had to pull the pole out and the whole paper came with it without a crease and you laid it on a table and read to your heart’s content.  You can see an example of that in the library scene in the Hitchcock film, Shadow of a Doubt.  
It was then that Regina began her now famous and beloved Christmas tree decorating for the community. Each tree, laden with very many of her beautiful handmade ornaments; her favorite are her Victorian ornaments.         
In addition to Regina and Mary Munger, there was Director Irene Eldrige, Assistant Director Mary Marsden, Children’s Librarian Mary Woodworth (all those Marys must have caused a bit of confusion), Ruth Fraas, and a bit later, Patsy Lee.  There was one other, beloved by staff and patrons--a cat called Fiction.
“One day, Miss Eldridge asked me to go down in the cellar with her to begin another assignment.  I don’t know if we had a grant for this project or not.  All of Newburgh’s old newspapers were bound.  My job was to wrap each newspaper and label them.  They were going to be microfiched and then sent back to the library.” 
“The library received the bound copies back after filming and the library sold the bound copies to the patrons for $5 each.  The patrons were quite excited with their purchases.”   The newspapers were quite old, some from the early 1800s. 
Regina and Patsy worked as a team at the circulation desk, doing whatever needed doing.  Whenever the Board of Education was going to tour the library, Regina and Patsy had to straighten all the bookshelves, making sure all the books were lined up at the front of the shelf.  When they finished, the shelves looked perfect and were fit for inspection.
An odd happening, “One day we came in to work and found a trail of burnt matches.  Someone had broken in during the night through a cellar window removed.  The matches went from the first floor, upstairs to the Children’s Room, which was always locked.  We were lucky there was no fire.”  The mystery was never solved. 
All’s well that ends well! “A patron had been using the copy machine and had just stepped away from it when the ceiling above fell on the machine.  He was fortunate to be away from the machine.”
No doubt, many of you remember the Library Branch at West Street School, with Assistant Director Mary Marsden in charge; Regina was asked to work there.  The branch was open on Mondays and Thursday from 1 – 5 p.m. and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. – Noon.  Part of her job was working in the Children’s Room (what a lovely name, it reminds me of”Kindergarten” one of my favorite words).
“I also did Inter-Library Loans, for a time.  I had a small grocery cart, which I pushed to the Newburgh Post Office to return borrowed books for patrons.  In fact, JoAnne Lugo’s [NFL Librarian] father waited on me all the time,” Regina’s refreshed memory of her teenage self at work.        
“When RCLS came into existence, the director asked me to check all over the library and make a list for RCLS so that we wouldn’t have duplicates.  RCLS began sending copies of mostly new books to our library.”
“I want to pause here and say both directors and staff were wonderful colleagues to work with.  I liked them and they liked me,” Regina’s happy memory most keenly felt. 
“All in all, we finally got the charge machine and the borrower’s cards for patrons.  Our staffing began to increase.  It was slow going for a few years, but we managed.  We had many wonderful programs, bulletin boards and book displays.  Our library just blossomed in the community.”   
Twenty-five years later, in 1976, “We closed the doors at our quaint old library at 100 Grand St. and moved into a spacious, beautiful new library at 124 Grand St,” (Our present library) where Regina said, “Much to my amazement there were 5 big bulletin boards and five book displays,” for her artwork. 
One of the schools donated three of the cases and one came from Washington’s Headquarters.  “My art career was going to take some action from this day on. Each case was filled on a month-to-month basis.  I had to call vendors to display their belongings each month.
“The Director always had to sign off on displays before I produced my bulletin boards.”  Her creative work on the bulletin boards and book displays were done with painstaking care and thought.  She would sketch figures and then cut them out, some very large, paint in backgrounds and place the figures, which would be dressed in clothing she made for them. 
“I had such a wonderful variety of bulletin boards.  For instance--The Little Drummer Boy, Find It in a Book, Old Mother Hubbard, Seek Your Fortune, Children Around The World.  All the Summer Reading Club’s were done every year, and many more.”  Regina’s love of the work is in her voice. 
Generations of you will remember, “I had a 4-H Club at the library for 35 years.  We always had about 20 children as members.  We called our club, The City Slickers” and we always entered all our projects in the Orange County Fair for awards.  The students won many Blue Ribbons.”
One the many important and voluntary things that Regina did was to keep scrapbooks of Newburgh and the library, which began when she started at the old building.  There is a section in the basement of the present library with her name on it and it contains all of the scrapbooks.  They were almost thrown out by one of the staff. It was fortunate that Regina saw that and stopped it.  The particular history of all those years would have been lost. 
“Through Mr. James Stevenson, one of our directors, the scrapbooks were organized and he asked me to promise, which I did, to keep the scrapbooks going for every program or new staff or deaths in these books. This is a wealth of information for anyone.”  Thank you, Regina and Mr. Stevenson.
“I did a vintage dress show.  I was able to contact fourteen women of many small sizes. We were able to borrow forty outfits for the models.  Over 350 people attended the function.” Regina cannot only create something, but can organize it as well.
Regina became known for her artwork and for her twelve foot Christmas tree in the lobby, which always took her two days to decorate using the beautiful decorations she made.  The trees were always a favorite Newburgh Free Library attraction for everyone to enjoy, whatever your beliefs.
“Pat Lewis was hired as a program director; I became her closest assistant.  My job was to contact all artists for our annual art show and to contact patrons from our mailing list. Pat also kept in close contact on all displays; we did have many beautiful displays,” Regina’s memories of jobs well done.
On Oct. 13, 1990, the library suffered a serious flood, which resulted in its closing for nine months.
“At this time, I have given all my art work to New Windsor School and many displays for their library to use.  Today, October 16, 2020, I am leaving my employment after 69 years.  It truly was a wonderful 69 years between the old and the new libraries.  I thank every patron I became a friend to, and all my staff and directors.” 
Thank you, Regina Angelo.  Congratulations on 69 years of giving to the generations of Newburgh Free Library patrons and to our community.      
In addition to her library career, Regina served for many years on the City Council and was Newburgh’s Deputy Mayor; she was a member of and attended countless meetings of organizations within the City.  She has been a moving force in holiday and patriotic celebrations, programs and functions within Newburgh. 
The Christmas trees at City Hall and at the foot of Broadway are there through her community spirit and decorated by her creativity and generosity of spirit.  Flowers planted to bring beauty to spaces here and there--done at her own expense, as has been so much of what she has done all these years.  Regina Angelo’s heart, mind, effort, and soul have been given freely to our City.  A very Rara Avis, indeed..    
For the 44 years, Regina worked at the new building, and as she had done for the first 25 years in the old building, she worked at everything a successful library offers. Her creativity and boundless enthusiasm prompted her to do everything she could to add to the library‘s vital place in our community.  May God smile on her and bless her each and every day.
As always, I close with my prayers for God’s blessings on your heads my dears.