At Oak Harbor’s Dutch Maid Laundry, Beverly Reedy places a suit jacket on Suzy, the pressers’ helper, and starts foggy jets of steam flowing through the mannequin’s cloth frame.

With deft movements, Reedy does what she has done for nearly 37 years. As she removes the jacket from the steaming Suzy, she talks about the different machines the local business uses to get clothes back into shape for customers.

It was Reedy’s last day at Dutch Maid. After years of working for the Anderson family, which owns the joint laundry and dry cleaning business, she is retiring.

“I was hoping to make it to 40 years working here,” she said. “But your legs and back kind of give out after a while.”

Reedy was born in Everett in 1934 and moved to Oak Harbor as a school girl. She said she used to ride the same school bus as Delmon and Juanita Anderson. At age 18, Reedy got a job with another dry cleaner in town.

Several years later, Delmon Anderson offered her a job at his business.

Delmon said Reedy would come into their laundry to do her washing and was so meticulous she would clean up after herself, and just keep going to take care of other people’s messes. He said when he and his wife noticed her work ethic they wanted her in their business.

Thirty-seven years later, the Andersons don’t regret their decision.

Delmon said Reedy was the best worker an employer could ask for — a very good and responsible person.

“I wish her well,” he said.

For the past 16 years, Delmon’s son, Jeff Anderson, has run the family’s business along with his wife Donna Anderson.

Jeff Anderson said Reedy has known him since he was small. He said seeing Reedy retire is tough for personal reasons of friendship and family ties, and on the business side for the fact that Reedy has always taken responsibility to ensure that the business was run properly.

For many years Reedy was Dutch Maid’s business manager, but when she turned 69 years old, Reedy gave the manager position up and began weaning herself out of the business.

“I stepped down, and as I stepped down, I shortened my hours until I could feel like it was time to leave here,” she said.

Reedy said she is ready for retirement, but at the same time worries that she might get bored.

“A lot of times working keeps you young,” she said.

Reedy’s retirement plans consist of getting settled into the apartment she recently moved into, assisting her son with home repairs on a house he just purchased, playing bingo and taking trips with a travel group at the Oak Harbor Senior Center.

Reedy said she will try retirement life for a while, but if she gets too bored she knows Jeff will find her something to do at Dutch Maid.

She said the Anderson family is the reason she stayed at the laundry for so many years.

“They are wonderful people to work for. This is like home,” she said. “I mean, my children have been able to come and go in and out of here; my granddaughter, when she was very little, they used to drop her off for me to babysit.”

Reedy said her granddaughter would work on small tasks until her grandmother finished her work and then they would go home. Now, Reedy has a great-granddaughter who has stopped in a few times to see where great-grandma works.

Reedy laughed as she remembered her great-granddaughter’s eyes as she watched the clothes take a ride on the garment roller-coaster, on the dry cleaning side of the building.

“I’ll cry when I leave,” she said.

Co-workers also said they would cry when Reedy leaves. Elizabeth Milton, who has worked with Reedy for the past five years, said Reedy is known for always keeping busy. Milton said she enjoyed working under Reedy when she was the businesses manager, and will miss her now that she is retiring.

Reedy said she has always enjoyed taking something that is messy and wrinkled and making it look nice again, especially clothing that requires particularly neat and difficult creases, such as military clothing — which she got her share of here in Oak Harbor over the past 37 years.

“I think that’s what I was meant to do,” Reedy said, concluding that she thinks ironing and pressing is fun, but she is looking forward to bingo games and senior trips.

Feb. 8 was her last day at Dutch Maid.