Verna Naylor, nation’s oldest postmaster, dies at 94

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Verna Naylor, the oldest postmaster in the nation and the oldest employee of the U.S. Postal Service, has died. She was 94.

Naylor died Tuesday at a hospital near Bentonville, Ohio, where she ran a one-person post office from her rural home, about 60 miles southeast of Cincinnati. Her daughter, Sue Naylor, said her mother had been ill since March.

Postal Service spokesman David Walton said Naylor became the agency’s oldest employee following the June 30 retirement of Chester Reed, a 95-year-old mail handler and forklift operator in San Bernardino.

Naylor had been postmaster in Bentonville since 1968, taking over the job from her husband, who died that year.

Sue Naylor said she’d like to keep the post office in the family. No decision has been made on a replacement.

-- Associated Press