At 80, Millie Picone is queen of the Crown

LYNN – Her friends at Crown Drug celebrated Millie Picone?s 80th birthday Thursday with cake, well wishes and praise for a work ethic that has kept this native of Swampscott?s Mountain Park neighborhood on the job when most of her friends are retired.?I?m the oldest and I?m still working,” Picone said, adding she hopes to spend two days a week at the Lynn pharmacy until owner Ted Ball “tells me I can?t.”That day may be a long ways away given the high regard Ball and his family have for Picone, widow of former Lynn police officer Luke Picone. After her husband died in 1986, Picone found herself at a loss for ways to spend her time. Her daughter, Holly, and son, Steven, were adults and she had never held a job.?I was walking the street so much to stay busy, Joe Coppinger used to see me and say, ?You keep walking the street, I?ll haul you in.?”Before the family friend and late police captain got a chance to make good on his word, Picone landed a job with Captain Jacks in Swampscott where she worked four years before taking a job making doughnuts at Heartland, previously located on the current site of Market Basket in Salem.?I was in every day, even blizzards,” she said.Ball says it is that work ethic and her friendly disposition that prompted him to hire Picone 16 years ago to work in his corner drug store.?I hired her on the spot,” he said.Picone looks forward to vacationing with friends at York Beach in two weeks and then returning to work.