OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Marjorie Segree is passionate about news but she’s not a journalist. For the past 22 years she’s been selling the Jamaica Observer newspaper on the streets of this resort town. Her loyal customers have dubbed her Miss Observer.

From smart management of her earnings, the 64-year-old has achieved many of her goals.

“I built an upstairs and downstairs house out of selling the paper and I have been throwing my partner every week since,” she said proudly. “I also sent my two children to school through doing this so I have to be forever grateful to do this job.”

Segree became a newspaper vendor in 2003 when, unemployed, she decided to lend a hand to her then boyfriend.

“My boyfriend at the time, Delroy Angus, had a cousin who was the circulation manager and she saw that he was without a job and decided to give him some help. I came out and started helping him. We use to go in separate directions and just sell the papers and right then and there I found my job,” said Segree.

Angus eventually moved on to other jobs.

“I still do it because it is something I love,” she explained.

Even with a recent medical condition that impacts her movement, she is determined to be on the streets daily, supplying her customers with the newspaper.

“I can hardly walk right now but mi still come out and do it. A car drop mi right at the spot that I sell and pick me up in the evening when I’m ready to go home,” she said.

She leaves her home in Parry Town, St Ann, at 7:30 each morning to get to her newspaper stand near Scotiabank along Main Street.

“Through the rain or sun I’m out here. If I don’t come one day people fret because they depend on me to send their papers to them in their offices or [hand to] whoever pass, whether walking or in their vehicles. [They] look forward to buy from me,” she shared.

“It is a great feeling to know that I can provide them with their papers so they can know what is happening,” she added.

Asked if she would ever seek another line of work, Segree responded with a swift, “No!”

“I have never felt like changing my job to do anything else. Whenever I stop selling I’m going home to relax,” she said with a chuckle.