Vickki Dozier

Lansing State Journal

DELTA TWP. - Betty Collette was impeccably dressed, as always.

The three-piece skirt outfit would not be complete without her signature high heels. That day, they were silver.

"I’ve worn heels all my life, since I was 16 and big enough to get them on," Collette said.

But this day was special, Friday, Sept. 30, her last day of work at J.C. Penney.

Collette, 91, was surrounded by a steady stream of co-workers, customers, well-wishers. Balloons and confetti decorated the tables in the employee lounge. There were newspaper clippings, photos, a caricature drawing along with a full buffet and cake.

After 67 years, she was retiring.

"I've never seen such a party," Collette beamed. "I've never seen anything like it. They were still coming at 3 and 3:30 p.m."

It was all to say goodbye and good luck to "Miss Betty," as she has been affectionately dubbed.

"Betty wore heels up until that very last day," said Karen Brown, J.C. Penney general manager. "She may have shortened the heel a little, but they were still heels."

Back in 1950, Collette, who lived in Welch, West Virginia, had a 4-year-old son to take care of after her divorce. So she went to work for the J.C. Penney Co.

"I started out as a salesperson in women’s fashions," Collette said. "The most expensive dresses we were selling were $2.79 house dresses and $14.99 Loma Leeds."

She worked for the company for six years, but when her son was about 10 years old, she decided it was time for a move. By that time she was remarried and going by Betty Morrison.

"It was during a recession, back in the mid-1950s, where everything started going downhill," Collette said. "My husband's brother lived in Michigan, so we came here and he got a job. We were very fortunate because there were two good schools here and Bill went to both of them, Michigan State University and University of Michigan."

Bill is Collette's son. He's better known as Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette.

"My mother never thought of work as work," Judge Collette said. "She has always enjoyed working, and it has been a huge part of her life. She would get up, go to work, wait on people and enjoy seeing customers. This was kind of like other people going to an exercise club or something like that."

The company transferred Collette to the J.C. Penney downtown Lansing store, where they put her in charge of the sportswear department. She did well, and one day, the manager approached her.

"He said 'Betty, if you want to advance with Penney’s, I want you to take the dress department because you’ve got to know this entire floor if you want to get the advancement we’re thinking about.'"

That advancement turned out to be a position in management. At the time, at J.C. Penney, women in management were basically unheard of, Collette said. She took on the challenge of the dress department.

Shortly thereafter, in 1961, the company selected five women, one from each region, out of 1,700 stores, to be managers.

"I was chosen from the eastern region to be the first woman in management for a man’s position," Collette said. "I've come a long way."

It was around that time that she was diagnosed with cancer.

"We figured she was going to her death bed," Judge Collette said. "It was at a time when most people died. There weren’t a lot of cures. Miraculously enough, she had surgery at Ford Hospital, and she has been around all these years."

Collette was soon going to New York to help select merchandise for the stores. She loved going to the city, watching people push the carts up and down Fifth Avenue, going to coat markets, dress markets.They would each get a group of dresses to take back to the stores to try to sell.

"It was hard to do because people just didn't buy expensive dresses back then," Collette said. "We're talking years ago and $39 to $69 was expensive back then."

During one of her New York trips, Collette met Mr. James Cash Penney, the company's founder.

"I remember he showed me the pictures of all his famous bulls," Collette said. In his office, Penney had photos of himself standing by each animal with a blue ribbon. "He was so proud of that."

The downtown Lansing store was located at the corner of Kalamazoo and Washington, the site of the Cooley Law Library. "We had the first escalator in this town and that was quite an honor," she recalled.

In Collette's eyes, the downtown was breathtaking then.The women's stores included Maurice's, the Style Shop and Sans Souci. Maurice's was "the" store, she said and was talked about like people talk about Nordstrom’s now.

But everything wasn't grand.

"I worked at J.C. Penney downtown during the '60s when they had the riots," Collette said. "I remember a group of girls came into the store and set fire to our dress department. I saw it and put it out. I should never have done it. It could have really caught me on fire."

"It was all those nylon dresses. We had a big long rack and these girls, about five of them, they put candy in their coat pockets. Then I saw one girl over in the dresses. I saw this smoke, white smoke, it was a different smoke, just billowing. And I ran and grabbed some dresses and kept throwing dresses on it to smother it. That was the scariest thing."

She was at the downtown Lansing store for 21 years, returned to the West Virginia store for a couple years, then came back to Michigan, where she landed at the store in Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi. She loved it, but was ready to come home, back to Lansing. Her son and grandchildren were here. And she was almost ready to retire.

"I didn't think I'd ever get here, but I did," she said.

The J.C. Penney in the Lansing Mall was her last stop.

"I got here and worked two years and I wanted to retire," Collette said. "I knew my 40 years was going to be up. When I decided to retire, the company was slow about writing me out, they didn’t get me written out, and so I just continued working. That's how I continued my 67 years."

Out of all the positions she has held, selling on the sales floor has been her favorite.

"I've been selling since 1989, and I love it," Collette said. "I love it better than all the other things I've done."

She will miss her customers. As she broke the news to them, she said many of them had tears in their eyes.

"I always find it absolutely amazing that when I go to big, family extended parties, with people I've never met, they know about Betty," Brown said.

"When I say I'm the general manager at J.C. Penney, the first thing out of their mouths is 'Do you know Miss Betty? Is Miss Betty still there?' I cannot tell you how many people I have met outside of the workplace that love her."

And she loved what she was doing.

"I would have left long ago if I didn't love it," Collette said. "I've been here since 1987, almost 30 years. But it seems like yesterday. It's been a wonderful journey. The company has been so good to me. I can't complain one bit."

She'll keep busy in retirement. She's got lots to do: organizing her home; chasing after her 40-pound dachshund, Sassy; cooking dinner once a week for her son and grandson, James. She's going to buy herself a tablet, maybe even do some eBay.

"She doesn't have enough time to get everything done," Judge Collette said. "She has outlived everyone ... She has really been a real rock. People just love my mom. If you were a customer, you were her friend."

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@vickkiD.