HARTFORD – On August 21, Trudy Goldstein will celebrate her 40th year as a Ledger Publications staff member, granting her exclusive elder-stateswoman status as the longest-employed associate of the organization.

“Trudy is still a very valid part of our team,” says Ledger Associate Publisher Leslie Iarusso, who has been on staff for 20 years. “She is sharp, well-organized, and professional with a wealth of information from her many years in the community. We’re happy she is still part of the Ledger family – with no signs of slowing down!”

A native of Hartford’s North End, Goldstein is the daughter of the late Julius and Sadie Weiner – owners of Weiner’s Men’s Clothes, a Hartford business chronicled in the 2013 book, Revisiting Our Neighborhoods: Stories from Hartford’s Past (Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford).

She and her husband Alex z”l raised their three daughters in West Hartford. It was when their youngest daughter was entering high school that she decided to find a job.

“I played Mah Jongg with three other women and they all worked,” she recalls. “When I’d say, ‘Let’s play another hand,’ they would say, ‘You don’t have to work tomorrow.’”

When she began her career at the Ledger – which was then owned and operated by Bert Gaster z”l and Shirley Bunis z”l – the newspaper was housed above The Crown supermarket at West Hartford’s Bishops Corner, within walking distance from the Goldsteins’ home. The job was clerical and Goldstein did everything, from ad design to label-printing to newspaper layout.

“I even took out the garbage,” she says.

She remembers when the old typewriters were replaced with electric ones. She can list the names of all the rabbis and Connecticut politicians who would frequent the office. She recalls the different colors of paper used for the Ledger‘s editions for Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford.

Today, Trudy is one of the Ledger’s top advertising sales representatives. She’s also a whiz on the computer, and her remarkable memory – she’s got an uncanny ability to recite addresses and/or phone numbers within moments of being asked – is relied upon by staff.

And she still finds satisfaction in her work and her Ledger “family.”

“This job is good for me,” she says. “I’m greatly appreciated by our publisher and our entire staff. I’m surrounded at the office by good company and close friends.”