Helpful Court House Guide Is Retiring¿And Taking Job With Her

MINNEAPOLIS - In a sprawling, towering court in need of a road map, all anyone every really needed was Mary Kay Long.

For the past 14 years inside the Hennepin County Court House, Long has perched her chair at the corner of lost and confused. Need to fight a ticket? Long pointed the way. Can’t find the jury selection room? Long showed you. Desperate to find a family member’s court hearing? Long directed to the proper floor.

She was often as welcoming as the fresh flowers on her desk -- bright spot in a building of sometimes terrible darkness.

For Long this is more than a job, it’s been home. “I love this place.”

On Friday, Long and the Court House mark the end of an era. After 31 years of working various jobs in the court system, Long is retiring.

Her memories are long, her reflection is short. “Wonderful years, I’ve loved it.”

The man who put her in charge of directing lost citizens through the maze of the court system couldn’t praise her more.

“You know in the 15 years that I’ve been here, Mary Kay has been with me to explain the complicated process of the courts to people who come here who are nervous, who don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” said Court Administrator Mark Thompson. “She calms them down, finds the place where they need to be and makes sure they feel comfortable about being here.”

In a building that lets justice peer through the windows of people’s souls, Long says she had a window to something else. “Every day I get a belly laugh, or I could sob. Every day. It is a window to the world.”

Come Friday, the world changes—in more ways than one. When Long leaves the county intends to replace her with a computer. Call it a sign of the times.

At 69 years old, Long insists she was not forced out, but the time was simply right to retire. The spot she once smiled from at the corner of lost and confused will now be occupied by a kiosk anchored at the corner of cold and impersonal. Pray that there’s not a power outage.

“I’ll land where I’m supposed to land. It will be whatever,” said Long. “It will be kind of exciting to see what I’ll be doing next.”