Marlin Postmaster to retire after 25 years

After 25 years of sorting and distributing the U.S. Mail in the town of Marlin, Leah Correia will be free to do as she wishes every day between 9 and 1:30.

Correia, the daughter of Ed and Elva Batterman, was raised and educated in Wilson Creek, where she graduated from high school in 1968.

Correia did not work for the postal service prior to being hired as postmaster. She was interviewed for the position in 1987, and was “hired right off the street” to manage the Marlin post office, which at that time was situated in the old bank building.

When the office was moved to the Marlin Grocery, which was still open at the time, Corriea said she was situated in the back corner of the store. After the store closed, the post office remained.

Correia says that one day a stranger came in and frightened her enough that she told her superiors in the postal service that she would no longer work in an unsafe place. Within two weeks, she says, work had begun on the “building inside a building” that is the current post office.

Correia says that there have been many changes in the postal service in her 25 years in service, and not just the increase in the cost of a stamp, from 22 cents to 45 today. When asked about the current uncertainty around the continuation of service in Marlin and other small communities around the country, Correia says, “It changes every day.”

When she first took the job, she sorted the mail herself. Now it is sorted in Wilson Creek and delivered prior to 9 a.m. to the Marlin P.O. by a contracted delivery driver out of Wenatchee. Correia must have the mail distributed to the boxes no later than 9:30, which she confirms each day by using a hand-held scanner.