ASHLAND — Pauline Dartey knows every nook and cranny in Ashland’s First Presbyterian Church on Judd Plaza. She can point to even the smallest scratches on the historic church’s pews and even the palest spots on the carpet.

And if someone needs to find something in the church, they ask Dartey where it is. Chances are she knows.

But after 39 years of vacuuming carpets and rocking babies, Pauline Dartey, 85, has ended her career at the downtown church. She has retired and will be honored for her nearly four decades of service with a reception and dinner immediately following Sunday morning’s worship service. Garrett Bugg, the church’s senior pastor, said he hopes many friends and acquaintances who know Dartey will come to bid her a happy retirement and enjoy the meal, and not just those who know her through the church.

 Dartey was 39 in 1966 when she began her employment at the church as a part-time caregiver in the Mother’s Day Out program and as a nursery worker during special events.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many children I have rocked in this church,” said Dartey. “I’ve taken care of a lot of the children of the first children I cared for. I’ve watched a lot of children grow up in this church. I love children and I always love taking care of them.”

Dartey said Wednesday has always been her day off, but because of funerals, receptions, meetings at church and other activities, “I can’t tell you how many Wednesdays I have worked. It’s a lot.”

At the time she was hired, Pauline Dartey’s husband, Oscar, was the janitor at the church, and when he died almost 28 years ago, she took over his housekeeping duties.

“When Oscar died, I had to do something to pay the bills and keep my house,” Dartey said. “Fortunately, the  church allowed me to do many of the same things Oscar had been doing which gave me enough hours to survive. This church has been very good to my family.”

  About 20 yeas ago, Dartey gave up her child care duties and became a fulltime housekeeper. It’s a job she does exceptionally well, Bugg said.

“Every Thursday Pauline cleans and vacuums the sanctuary in preparation for Sunday’s service,” the senior pastor said. “I can’t tell you how many times I have come into the sanctuary to do something after she has prepared it for Sunday, and before I even get back to my office, I can hear Pauline running the vacuum to clean up after me, no mater how little I had done. That’s just the way she is. That’s how conscientious she is.”

 Bugg said Dartey has worked under 17 pastors and assistant pastors during her years at the church.

When she first came to the church, the nursery was still in the old parish house, which was torn down in the late 1970s to make room for the “new” addition of the church, which is no longer quite so new, Dartey said. “The church looked a lot different back then,” she said.  “In fact, I can hardly remember exactly what it looked like.”

Bugg said church members who are now adults can remember fighting with the other children as pre-schoolers for the chance to sit on Dartey’s lap.  She treasures a card she received from an adult thanking her for all th hugs and kisses she gave her as a small child.

“People in this church have so many memories of their time with Pauline,” Bugg said. “She has literally been a fixture in the church.”

Dartey said she plans to keep on cleaning churches in her retirement, but it will be the much smaller Faith Church of God in Flatwoods, where her son, Richard Dartey, is the pastor and where Dartey attends on Sundays.

“My children have been wanting me to retire for years,” Dartey said of her two adult children. “I kept telling them that I wasn’t ready to retire because I enjoyed what I was doing and was healthy enough to do it.”

Now she will be able to fulfill a promise she made to her son to do the housekeeping at his church, Dartey said, but “it’s so small I don’t think it will take much time.”

Dartey is not promising to completely stay away from First Presbyterian. “If I get bored and am looking for something to do, I just may come in here (at First Presbyterian) to see if I can help out,” she said. “I am pretty used to being here and I may miss it.”

Bugg said Pauline Dartey will always be welcome at First Presbyterian. “The people of his church love her and we hope she visits often,” he said.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.

com or at (606) 326-2649.