Benton, Mo., woman provides spice at Saxony Village

Joann Lester said she never meets a stranger. She certainly knows no strangers among the residents of Saxony Village. When an unfamiliar face pops up in the dining room, Lester said, she's the first to make a proper introduction.

Lester has worked as a dining room hostess at Saxony Village for four years. The 72-year-old hostess from Benton, Mo., has a special place in the retirement community.

"Every day I'm different. I tell men they should marry me because I'm a different woman every night," she said.

Lester wears a different wig every day, loves to dress up in costume and is a self-proclaimed yard sale junkie.

On any given day, over the clink-clank of dishes and silverware in dining room 2 at Saxony Village, the hostess starts singing.

"I just start singing. I sing all the time," Lester said. "On Sundays I sing church songs and everyone, even those still eating, start singing along. We all have fun."

Saxony Village is a care facility and retirement community for seniors. Though the community has an assisted living facility for those who require 24-hour care, Saxony Village has a number of apartments and duplexes for active older adults. Those seniors have access to the common areas of Saxony Manor such as the library, fitness room and computer lab. The Manor also offers residents free continental breakfast and a large buffet lunch in the facility's two dining rooms.

Rose and C.A. Baugus and Jerry and James Starkey said they only go to the dining room Lester works in.

"It's livelier than the other room," Rose Baugus said. "My great-grandkids even like to come here because of her."

The buffet menu in dining room 2 includes two entrees, a plethora of side dishes and dessert -- all topped with the spice that is Joann Lester.

"She adds spice to this place. I like her singing," said Naomi Newman, a resident of Saxony Village since January 2008.

Lester sings everything from church hymns to holiday jingles. If it's a resident's birthday, she leads the dining room in singing "Happy Birthday." On the Fourth of July and Flag Day, Lester said, she and the residents sing "God Bless America."

But Halloween is when Lester can let her hair down -- or put it on, rather. She said she brings three or four costumes to work to change into during the two-hour lunch. She said she might run from one dining room to another, frantically changing her attire and surprising residents with each wacky, new outfit.

"One year I came in dressed up as an old man in a suit. I sat at one of the tables in here and everyone was talking and asking 'Who's that?,'" she said. "I'm crazy. I'm full of it all the time."

Being 72 years old herself, Lester said she loves working with older generation.

"I have so much fun with older people. I'm older, too," she said with a laugh. "I just look forward to coming to work."

Some of the residents, such as Bob Daugherty, said they look forward to her work days just as much as she does. Daugherty has lived at Saxony Village for five years and he said he appreciates Lester's "friendly and lively" attitude.

"She's got a really outgoing personality. She livens up the place, which I think we kind of need."

Lester said she will continue to bring her quirky antics to the dining room in Saxony Manor.

"I think they look forward to lunch where they can get with other people and visit," she said. "They like to have somebody happy waiting on them. I tell jokes and they tell me jokes. It's how I am. I just don't meet strangers."