SHINER, Texas (AP) - Ruth Terpinski walks into the Spoetzl Brewery office donning oval-shaped glasses, bright-colored threads, a statement necklace and teased hair - all of which matches her regal saunter.
And why not? Everywhere she goes, the 80-year-old Shiner woman is treated like a queen.
But, please, just call her “Ruthie” or “Miss Ruthie.”
Terpinski is a talker. She can’t help it. Everyone wants to talk to her and, sometimes, has to. Luckily, she always has a story to tell.
Perhaps Spoetzl Brewery is where she belongs.
Terpinski takes calls from all over the world at the brewery, answering questions, giving directions, and promoting the beer brand and Shiner, the cleanest little city in Texas.
By this summer, Terpinski will have worked part time with the brewery for seven years, after one day asking a corporate officer with The Gambrinus Company, which owns the brewery, if there was a role she could fill.
Terpinski wakes up every day with a sense of responsibility, something of the utmost importance, she said.
“I think this part-time job keeps me going and keeps the Grim Reaper away,” she told The Victoria Advocate (https://bit.ly/1IFwrsf). “I hope he doesn’t come around. I like life.”
And she’s quite lively.
Entering a room, all eyes fall upon the 4-foot, 9-inch - and three-quarters, she’d add - lady, and suddenly the room becomes the work environment that she said gets her to return in the morning. Terpinski offers sweet “hellos” and childlike gazes to friends and guests, alike, acting as forms of endearment, drawing a smile from everyone she encounters.
It’s taken a lifetime to get where she is.
Terpinski grew up on a farm in Ohio. She took a job as a bookkeeper at the Old Dutch brewery in Findlay, where she met Chester Terpinski, an eligible bachelor and brewmaster and her future husband.
He was the impetus behind their move to Shiner.
Terpinski had a happy, comfortable life for herself in Ohio. Also, she took on jobs as a switchboard operator, a secretary and then a vault custodian, keeping track of hundreds of security boxes for First National Bank.
They married in 1958 and welcomed their only child, Casper Terpinski, the next year.
After spending the summer of 1968 in Poland, her husband’s homeland, the couple received a message advertising the open position of brewmaster at Spoetzl Brewery.
She knew the move was unavoidable.
“I didn’t want to leave,” she said, drawing a somber tone. Her gaze dropped to her ring finger. “You go where your husband has to go.”
He assured her she’d be happy in Texas.
“He said, ’Oh, honey, you’ll like Shiner. It’s a nice little town.’”
As far as she was concerned, he would be right.
Her husband made a deal, they would try the town out for two years. If it didn’t work out, he promised they’d move back to Ohio.
“I thought that was a good deal,” she said. “Little did I know I would fall head over heels for Shiner.”
The transition from Ohio was rocky.
If not for a neighbor who told her to “get with it,” Terpinski would have stayed a recluse, spending more time playing with kittens than making friends.
Chester Terpinski was brewmaster from 1968 until 1972.
After he died in 1992, Terpinski carried on.
In her time in Shiner, she had a stint as a professional cheesecake maker. She also supported the local arts at Gaslight Theatre, drove a school bus and spent time as a playmate for children with special needs.
Anchored by a sense of responsibility she learned from farm life, Terpinski has always had a sense of duty and offered advice to younger people.
“Somebody had to take care of those children,” she said. “Learn responsibilities and be a good worker in life.”
She traveled the world, but the road led her back to the brewery.
Her trademark is a wicked sense of humor. Sometimes, she says she’s 69.
“She’s a hoot,” said Leigh Ann Prince, an accounting and hospitality officer at the brewery. “Very reliable. Always keeps us on our toes.”
Terpinski steps in.
“She’s a prince,” she smiled. “Sometimes, she’s a princess.”
While juggling conversations, she never seems to go weary. Instead, she extends herself to anyone else not plugged in and makes them a part of a conversation. Then, suddenly, she effortlessly shifts priorities, when the phone rings.
Sometimes, it’s a quick yes-or-no question. Other times, it’s an in-depth conversation about what the brewery has to offer. Then, there’s unsolicited speed-limit advice she offers to people going through Moulton to get to the brewery.
“I give them fair warning, because all those flashing lights were behind my bumper once,” she said. “I like to warn people. It’d be terrible if they’re coming to visit the brewery and get stopped for speeding.”
The room goes noticeably quieter until she hangs up the phone. Then, conversations resume with co-workers.
It’s no wonder her favorite calls are from Mexico and Europe, her late-husband’s Polish accent and globetrotting sparked a lifelong fascination with language.
“It’s exciting when you have someone call from Europe,” she said. “It’s like they’re calling from next door.”
Dotsy Elliott, gift shop purchasing manager at the brewery, has called Terpinski a friend for more than 25 years. They often watch movies together.
“She tells me to wake her up at the good parts,” Elliott laughed.
Generally, Terpinski is bubbly and cheerful, her son said.
“She has her moments of giving me a motherly lecture,” said her son Casper Terpinski, a Houston stock broker. “She’s 80 years old, but she’s like a big kid.”
Terpinski gave him the freedom to find his own way.
“She taught me to be my own self,” he said. “They let me make mistakes, too, and sometimes I got a little lecture for it. I probably put a few gray hairs in my mother’s head.”
Terpinski has snow-white hair now, each one earned while being a constant figure in her son’s life.
“She’s been like a rock to help me through and was my best friend until I got married,” he said. “The Lord’s going to take her home. I’m going to be - you know, I don’t have brothers and sisters, so I’ll kind of be alone.”
He moved to Shiner with his parents when he was in the third grade, and grew up with Jimmy Mauric, the brewmaster at Spoetzl Brewery.
“The woman always had a smile on her face,” Mauric said, adding Terpinski is like a mascot for the team.
Mauric knew who she was growing up, but he didn’t interact much with her until she joined the Brewery staff.
“She’s got a great sense of humor, and she just brightens up the place,” Mauric said.
When Terpinski asked for a job, it couldn’t have come at a better time, said Tess Liberto, a corporate officer with The Gambrinus Company. As the brewery became busier, there was little relief on the staff during lunch hours. Liberto needed to fill just a few hours each day.
Enter Terpinski.
“I personally think that God was involved,” Liberto said. “It was a god send. She’s happy, and I’m happy. She’s back at home.”
Liberto relished seeing Terpinski become an employee who colorfully interacts with brewery guests on the phone.
“By the time they get there, they want to meet her,” she said. “She’s a very giving person.”
While continuing her husband’s legacy in Shiner, Terpinski has paved one in her own right.
“It’s a wonderful, joyous place to work,” she said. “Everyone is so nice. They treat me like royalty, for which I am so blessed. Don’t know how I can be so blessed.”
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Information from: The Victoria Advocate, https://www.victoriaadvocate.com
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