After six decades, tobacco worker retires

(Gallatin News Examiner) After 62 years of rolling, stemming and wrapping tobacco, Daisy Whiteside retired from her job at the R.C. Owen Tobacco Company last week. Despite being partially blind, the 82-year-old continued working the past decade because her hands had memorized all of the motions required in her tasks. ... The plant is one of Gallatin’s oldest manufacturing plants and was one of the few places at the time that would hire and pay a decent wage to African-Americans, according to local historian Velma Brinkley, who profiled Whiteside and four other senior workers for the Gallatin News Examiner in 2001. Continued