Poplarville resident and Dollar General Sales Associate Michelle Simoneaux clocked into work for her last time after 22 years of working at the same place. Simoneaux has been working at the Dollar General located at 1405 S Main in Poplarville since the day it opened in 1999. Simoneaux was also present for the ribbon cutting for the store’s grand opening in 1999.

“I was the only staff here as soon as the building was built,” said Simoneaux.

Simoneaux’s motivation for continuing to work at the Dollar General was her love for the business and the community.

“I love the store, and I love all my customers and they love me, it’s like my second family here,” she said.

Members of the community showed their for Simoneaux by stopping at the business on Friday to congratulate her on her retirement. During her last day on the job, she received a lot of love and smiles.

“If you walk through Poplarville and say Ms. Michelle, everybody’s going to know who you’re talking about,” said Dollar General Manager Shannon Smith.

Simoneaux has been a resident of Poplarville since moving there in 1985. Since then she’s been working for 35 years. Prior to working at Dollar General, Simoneaux worked at Garret Industries, a sewing factory, for 14 years.

At 62-years-old Simoneaux‘s plan for her retirement years is to make up for the time lost by spending it all with her two grandchildren.

“I have my grand-babies that both have autism. I need to take care of them, they’ve always needed me and I’ve missed out on a lot and I want to make sure I make up for that,“ said Simoneaux.