Few people in Humboldt are more recognizable than Bev Ruse.
That comes from working at the convenience store on North Ninth Street for better than two decades.
If Norman Rockwell were alive today, he would relish a chance to turn Bev into a magazine cover. She has an inner smile and demeanor that radiates friendliness, whether a customer is making a purchase for the 100th or the first time.
Thats what Bev is about, no curt replies, no hurry-up frowns, rather an attitude, steeped in efficiency and kindness, that invites those who stop by to become regulars.
Bev started her work-a-day life in the dietary department of Fredonias hospital after graduating from Altoona-Midway High in 1975.
In July 1982, while working at National Garment in Chanute, she and Randy Ruse married. He was a machinist at Haldex, and lived in Iola; she in Chanute. For conveniences sake they found a house in Humboldt. A couple of years later she signed on at Iolas Country Mart.
One day, driving home from Iola for the umpteenth time, she stopped by the convenience store, then Johnsons General Store, and told manager Ruby Foster: You know, for two cents Id come to work for you. Foster knew a good deal when she saw it and handed Bev a calendar to pick the days she wanted to work.
That was the start of her long tenure, though interrupted for the birth of daughter Ashlee, and a few years off for Bev to be a stay-at-home mom. Bevs granddaughter is Raylee, a freshman at Neodesha High School.
Bev got her first taste of responsibility while growing up in Buffalo by helping two brothers, Fred and Bill Weston, deliver the Chanute Tribune.
Buffalo was typical of many small, isolated towns. It had no grocery store we went to Chanute or Fredonia for such purchases, and children were left up to their own devices for entertainment.
CONVENIENCE stores are an outgrowth of neighborhood groceries that most often occupied the front room of residential dwellings well into the 1950s.
Business slows a bit during cold-weather months, Bev allowed, but soon will rev up, with the start of the racing season and warmer weather.
That will give Bev ample opportunity to add to her long roster of friends.
