‘Why leave a good thing?’: Dallas Parkland Hospital employee celebrates 50 years

DALLAS — Glenda Redd of Dallas has an incredible story of longevity. 

The 69-year-old radiology department educator has been working for 50 years and, better yet, at the same place. There are not many people who can boast working at the same place for five decades. 

Redd works in the radiology department at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. 

“It went by so quickly, can you believe that?” Redd said.

She still remembers it being 1972 as was just getting out of high school at L.G. Pinkston. She was one of five Black students in the radiology class that was once offered at Parkland. 

Everyone in her radiology class has since retired and she is the last one still working.

“She’s an anomaly actually,” said James Collins, a friend who has been at Parkland for 36 years. “She has the record so I’m not trying to compete for the record.”

The U.S. Department of Labor said the average person changes careers five to seven times.

There aren’t many people like Redd who can boast five decades. But she can name two such people: her parents.

“They were very hard working independent individuals,” she said.

Her parents, James and Robey Collins, have now passed, but they had a family-run cleaners called Collins Cleaners for more than 50 years. 

Redd said longevity is about attitude, loving what you do and loving others. 

“…and the last piece of advice: come to work,” she said. “I think it not only means physically come to work but also have your head in the game.”

She has been answering the same question about retirement for the last five years. And she told WFAA her response has always been the same.

“They keep telling me you need to retire. Why retire when I’m having so much fun? Why leave a good thing?” she said.