After a 41-year reign that saw her dole out “good mornings,” laughter, and an occasional stern word to co-workers, Marian Kinney, aka, “The Queen,” to one and all who work with her, is departing Essex Media Group Thursday for a well-deserved retirement.
There’s no job title next to Marian’s name on the employee list in The Daily Item for the simple reason that describing what she does would require all 16 pages in the paper. Over the span of her career, beginning in 1980 in the Item Building on Exchange Street and, since 2015 working for Essex Media Group on Munroe Street, she has been, by turns, confidante, psychologist, historian, finder of missing information and you can safely add marriage adviser to that list.
She started working for the former Daily Evening Item after working at the former Sears Credit Central in Lynn and Giant Stores in Lynn. By 1990, she was overseeing the newspaper’s account functions, human resources oversight, and business office scheduling.
As daunting as each of those tasks might sound, you never found Marian griping about work load or uncooperative colleagues. She could disarm even the gruffest or most self-important person with a loud and lively, “Hey, you.”
Her memory is probably sharper than most of the reporters who worked at The Item throughout her career. Toss a date at her and she will promptly tell you about this friend or that relative who celebrated an important anniversary on that day.
Woe betide any Item employee who routinely forgot to fill out their weekly timesheet.
Marian never underpinned her penchant for talking loud with a malicious tone. But she made it clear to slackers that timesheets and all the other paperwork that make a business run were going to get filled out correctly and promptly on her watch.
Oh — before I forget — her near-daily shouting matches with Chief Financial Officer Will Kraft boil down to good-natured sparring and provide humorous relief for their co-workers without ever leading to a resolution of the particular topic at hand.
Loyalty and dedication are words that get tossed around sometimes without accompanying evidence to support their use. But Marian personifies both words.
Through the good years and tough ones in the newspaper business, she unfailingly and unflinchingly stood by publishers who had the good fortune — or bad — to be steering the proverbial ship at that time.
“My good fortune,” said Item publisher Ted Grant, “was knowing Marian.”
Oh, yeah — her love of Elvis Presley knows no bounds and the only way to get chased out of her office is to say something bad to The Queen about The King.
When Marian marked her 40th anniversary at The Item in June 2020, daughter Shayna Kinney-Dana succinctly summed up her mother’s devotion to the newspaper by saying, “It’s her second family.”
Grandmother to Jordan, Lindsey and Michael, Marian lives in Middleton but Lynn is very much a part of her world beyond work. “Going to the (Lazy) Dog for lunch with the girls,” is an oft-heard Kinneyism second to her constantly insisting, “I hate bananas,” even though she brings one to work every day.
Faith plays as big a role in Marian’s life as family, and her support for Grace United Methodist Church rivals her commitment to her workplace. This Maya Angelou quote sums up Marian perfectly:
“At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
Happy retirement, Marian. Working with you made us all feel better.
Long live The Queen.
