Elsie Talanian, longtime Salem Observer employee and town icon, is retiring.

One of the most familiar faces in town, Elsie, 88, cites health reasons for stepping down from her position, which she’s held for 42 years.

She’s known to readers for her column, “A Chat With Elsie,” a folksy collection of local announcements and wisdom, one of the most popular items in the paper. She’s also well known throughout the Salem community and surrounding towns as a successful advertising saleswoman.

She was inducted into the New England Press Association Hall of Fame in 2007 for her editorial and advertising contributions to the paper.

Elsie remembers her start at the Observer in 1966.

“I was staying at the Rockingham Hotel in the Depot, after just moving to New Hampshire from Connecticut,” she said. “I was in the little store across the street and saw an ad looking for a newspaper person. I went to see Robert Phinney, the publisher, and he hired me on the spot.”

She already had experience as a socials writer in Connecticut. While working there, she met and interviewed then-Gov. Abraham Ribicoff, Lady Bird Johnson, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Margaret Truman. She also had breakfast with First Lady Pat Nixon.

At the Observer, she started writing about clubs and organizations, making $95 a week. The paper was run in a room in the hotel back then, she said. Occasionally, her stories wouldn’t run. When she confronted Phinney about it, he told her there weren’t enough ads to support the number of pages it would take to run everything.

In typical Elsie fashion, she took matters into her own hands. She asked Phinney to show her how to sell ads, then she hit the streets. The rest is Observer history.

Elsie has witnessed many events in that history.

“I remember one time when the horses got loose at Rockingham Park,” she said. “Lenny Wefers, the Tribune reporter, was in the Masonic Hall writing up the story. Meanwhile I was in Peever’s, the corner drug store, on the phone telling the story to the Associated Press. I thought that was pretty funny.”

Peever’s was on the corner where Salem Co-op Bank is now. She said it was the best place to hear the news.

“I’d sit in there, having a hot chocolate in the winter, or a Coke if it was summer, pretending to look over my notes,” she said. “That’s when you heard all the town gossip.”

Elsie was with the paper through several changes in management. Phinney sold the paper to Richard Noyes, who sold it to Arthur Mueller Jr., who sold it to the Union Leader.

Joe McQuaid, Union Leader publisher, knows things will be different at the Observer from now on.

“No one is irreplaceable, they say. But ‘they’ never met Elsie Talanian,” McQuaid said. “All of us associated with The Salem Observer and Neighborhood News know that the paper and the office won’t be the same without her.

“When we took over the Observer, Elsie took over all of us. You didn’t try to stop her, you just tried to keep up with her. She remains dear to her newspaper family as well as the community.”

In 2005, the paper was added to the four other weekly papers published by Neighborhood News Inc., an independent subsidiary of the Union Leader Corp. Elsie rolled with the changes, continuing her successful sales career and writing about and taking photos of town happenings.

Like a family

But it hasn’t been all business to Elsie. To her, her friends and coworkers were like family. Gail Stratos, lead designer and assistant production manager at Neighborhood, has worked with Elsie since 1982, when Stratos joined the Observer while still in college.

“Elsie’s been with me my whole adult life,” said Stratos.

She recalls when she and her husband, Danny, who also worked as a graphic designer at the Observer at the time, were getting married. Elsie booked them a room for their wedding night at the Hilton in Boston and made sure the room was stocked with champagne, fruit and cheese.

“It was so nice of her to do that for us,” Stratos said. “And she took care of the staff like we were her kids. She’d bring in Chinese food and pizza, making sure we were all fed. I love her to pieces, and I’ll miss her so much.”

Sales manager Dixie Goodell was always amazed by her energy and work ethic.

“It’s been my privilege to work with Elsie since I joined the company five years ago,” she said. “She is a true professional with a tenacity for getting the facts correct, meeting deadlines, and treating everyone she meets with dignity and respect. All of us at Neighborhood News understand her need to focus on her own health at this time, but are sad to lose her from our daily lives.”

Elsie has many happy memories of working with people in town. She thanks those who gave her news tips through the years, and also thanks her advertisers, who were always good to her, she said.

Many times business owners would tell her to just put them on the page if the cost wasn’t too high, if she were doing a sponsorship page for the Cub Scouts or a blood drive, and not bother to call them.

“I never took advantage of any of my people,” she said. “They trusted me.”

She’ll miss her friends and advertisers, she said. The feeling is mutual.

“She’s been knocking on my door for 23 years,” said Emmett Horgan, owner of Rockingham Toyota in Salem. “She’s an incredible lady, the most well-known person in Salem. I have the utmost respect for her."

Horgan says he uses her as an example for his own staff.

“I wish my sales team had her energy,” he said. “Retirement is just not in her DNA, but I wish her the best.”

Betsy Harris, from the Harris’ Pelham Inn, said words failed her at the thought of Elsie retiring.

“She’s a great friend, like a surrogate mom,” she said. “She’ll be sorely missed.”

Elsie is heartbroken about leaving the Observer, she said. She talked of all the people who have been named in her column.

“I’d put the birth of a child in there, then years later, I’d post the marriage of that child,” she said.

Her retirement plans are first to follow doctors orders, “this time,” she said, and recuperate fully from recent surgery on a bleeding ulcer. Then she’ll take it from there. She’ll have time to spend with her friends playing Bingo at Rockingham Park, for sure.

Of course, the steady stream of visitors to her room at Salemhaven, where she is at present, attests to a woman who plans to spend retirement with the people who mean most to her: the friends and neighbors she’s met through her years at The Salem Observer.