125 Years of Family Serving Family – Lorraine Arthurs, Merchandising Directorate, HQ

Lorraine Arthurs, Hardlines Merchandising Assistant

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 125 years of family serving family

Lorraine Arthurs became one of the first Exchange associates in Dallas to serve those who serve.

The year was 1967, LBJ was President, the Monkees were the hottest things on television, and Lorraine got her first taste of family serving family.

As Lorraine was looking for a job soon after graduating from school, her grandmother pointed her to a newspaper ad announcing job openings at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which was moving its headquarters from New York City to Dallas.

Lorraine applied at the personnel office in the Oak Cliff Bank Tower, one of two temporary locations AAFES set up while waiting for construction to finish on the new building. On Feb. 13, 1967, she got a job in the mail room in downtown’s Merchandise Mart, the other temporary location.

In October 1967, she was one of about 1,000 associates who moved into the new headquarters building in southern Dallas. Fifty-three years later, she is a merchandising assistant in hardlines, working with books and magazines and POSA cards.

“At the time of my interview, I was just hoping to get accepted,” Lorraine said. “I never thought that I would still be here in 2020.”

And, she still fulfills the core value family serving family.

Her father was an Army B-17 bombardier in England during World War II, while her husband served in the Army for two years in Vietnam.

“I enjoy working with our Exchange associates and being in contact with our vendors,” Lorraine said.

“I feel that what I do here at the Exchange provides something to the military personnel and their families, and I’ve felt that way ever since I walked in the door so many years ago.”