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Rural route was pathto letter-perfect career
Stafford postal carrier reflects on beloved White Oak routeDate published: 6/1/2009 Phyllis Sullivan-Williams can trace her 30-year career as a rural postal carrier by the vehicles she wore out on the job. There was the '79 Dodge Dart she wrecked in two months, and the Dodge Colt straight-stick she drove for two long years. There was the '69 Jeep DJ5 that vibrated so badly its parts would fall off mid-route. She'd toss them in the back, and at night husband Dennis would put the pieces back together. There was the later-model Jeep that sounded like a race car because Dennis put a V-8 engine in it. The Subaru she bought new in 1995 saw her through the 2-foot snowfall in the Blizzard of '96. She didn't miss a day, or a house, that whole long, white January. Another Subaru, then another Jeep. And at last, the white '05 Cherokee, instantly recognizable to the 520 customers on her beloved route through White Oak in Stafford County. "I said when I bought it, 'This one's going to retire me,'" Sullivan-Williams recalled recently. And that's just how it happened. One sunny May afternoon, Sullivan-Williams, 57, relinquished that Jeep to its new owner and said goodbye to her postal career. From now on, she said, her cars will have their steering wheels on the left. But she's not driving far. What she really wants is to be a homebody, enjoying the sprawling house Dennis designed and built with the help of White Oak neighbors and relatives. She has what she loves in this place: Willie, the black Labrador retriever; nine chickens; three ducks; 41 birdhouses; a garden; and Dennis. 'THE BEST JOB' Phyllis Sullivan grew up in the southern Stafford community of White Oak with her parents, Debbie and Roy Sullivan, and eight siblings. She graduated from Stafford High School in 1971. Dennis Williams was raised on White Oak Road, too, and he graduated a year after she did. The couple started their life together in a little house on Butler Road that was always too low and narrow for Dennis' 6-foot-4-inch frame. One morning they got a call from a distant relative who wanted to sell 12 acres off White Oak Road right away, for cash. They had little collateral, but the loan officer at the bank knew and trusted them. The couple got the money that day.
Date published: 6/1/2009
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