FINAL DAY AT FLORSHEIM BRINGS SADNESS, TEARS

When Delores Pachett left Florsheim Shoe factory Tuesday, she hesitated just outside the door.

She looked back and said, "I've been working here since the new plant opened."

The "new" Florsheim plant, near Southern Expressway and Southwest End Boulevard, opened in 1969.

"I've worked for Florsheim 35 years," said Pachett. "It hurts a little bit to leave here today. I've met a lot of friends here."

Pachett was one of many workers who made their last trip to the Florsheim plant Tuesday.

"It's a sad day," said Pachett of rural Jackson.

Pachett, who worked on the plant's transportation line, hopes to find another job.

A Chicago company is in the process of buying the building and will need a few workers.

"I've heard the number is about 55," said Pachett. "Hopefully I will be one of those. If not I'll start looking around."

Pachett's husband, Chalmer, also worked at Florsheim before his retirement.

"We're OK for Christmas," said Delores Pachett. "We planned ahead for that."

Pachett headed for her car and took her time placing an armload of packages in it before getting behind the wheel.

A number of workers emerged from the plant for the last time around the noon hour.

One of them, Clara Pender of Scott City, said: "It's sad in there. There are a lot of tears inside the plant."

Pender, who also worked on the transportation line, sat outside the plant on a picnic-table bench for a long time.

"I have a baby-sitting job waiting," she said. "Hopefully I'll be one of the 50 to 55 workers rehired by a new company that is buying the building."

Pachett and Pender both agreed that the closing was no big surprise.

"We've heard periodically over the past few years that the plant was going to close," said Pender. "But we'd keep working making shoes, and it didn't happen.

"This time it did," she said.

With the Florsheim plant closing Tuesday, 200 people were put out of work. Florsheim is moving its Cape Girardeau shoe-making operations to India.

Workers have known the past few months that the plant would close in late December. The exact date wasn't announced until last week.