(La Porte, IN) – A familiar face at the La Porte County Public Library has closed the book on a long library career.
Mary Hedge started working at La Porte Library over 41 years ago. Her first day was January 4, 1982. “I was just so happy to have a job here,” she said, thinking back on her first days at La Porte’s historic Carnegie library. Hedge grew up on farm in Iowa, then attended college outside Chicago.
A lot has changed in the years that Hedge has paced the stacks answering inquisitive patrons’ questions. “It’s been a complete turnaround,” she said. “There was no computer in those days… over doubling the size of the library, over doubling the size of the library staff, adding a new branch. Now we just have so much more to do here than we used to.”
Hedge has become known as a go-to resource for genealogy and local history questions, but…