SIDNEY – A job she thought would last only nine months turned into a 48 year career for Connie Rosenbeck, who is retiring from the Sidney Daily News on Friday.

“I just thought it would be a nine month gig,” Rosenbeck said. “You know, you don’t think about your whole career right when you get out of school. You just kind of have your mind on getting a job somewhere. I guess it paid off.”

After graduating from Lehman Catholic High School, Rosenbeck started her career with Amos Press, which owned newspapers including the Sidney Daily News and magazines about topics such as cars, coins and stamps. She applied for a job with the publisher at the urging of her mother.

“I had no desire to work at a newspaper,” the Sidney resident said. “My mom just kept saying, ‘Apply to the newspaper.’ So I sent in a resume, and (Tom Watkins) hired me for nine months.

“I guess my mom must have had some kind of a notion to keep bugging me to get a job at the newspaper. I don’t know if that’s like mother’s intuition or what.”

Rosenbeck still isn’t sure why her mom was so adamant that she should apply for a job at the Sidney Daily News. Her parents, Marion and Martha Baker, were subscribers, but the family had no other connections to the newspaper industry.

“I mailed in my resume just to kind of appease her, like, there, I did it. I mailed it in. Get off my back,” said Rosenbeck, whose father was a firefighter and whose mother was a stay-at-home mom.

Amos Press was in the process of converting from hot type to cold type, a computerized printing process, when Rosenbeck joined the company. She worked for almost 20 years in the composing room before moving to the graphics department and laying out newspaper pages for three years.

In 1994 Rosenbeck transferred again to classified sales. A couple years after that she moved to retail sales and has continued to work in advertising ever since.

While most of her career has been spent in her hometown of Sidney, Rosenbeck transferred to Piqua in 2003 to handle corporate accounts for the Sidney Daily News, Piqua Daily Call and Troy Daily News. After nine years there, she returned to Sidney.

Her most recent job responsibilities have included working with real estate agents in Miami and Shelby counties to publish real estate books for both counties.

“Connie has been a dedicated employee at the Sidney Daily News for 48 years,” Sidney Daily News General Manager Natalie Buzzard said. “She has shared her knowledge of the newspaper with new employees and provided guidance and friendship with everyone she has worked with. We are really going to miss her. I don’t know what we will do without her.”

As she reflected on her career, Rosenbeck said her favorite part of the job has been the people.

“I’ve always had great coworkers,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad customer. All of my customers have been great.”

In retirement, Rosenbeck plans to keep in touch with her customers.

“That’s been the rough part about it, sending out these emails and saying goodbye,” she said.

While she’s not sure how she’ll spend her time in retirement, Rosenbeck said, she’s looking forward to it.

“I’m going to take like six months for Connie time and then kind of figure out the next adventure,” she said.