When we first thought about doing an article on our mother we thought of titling it “Employee of the Month” or Year. But it’s been a number of years since she was employed here and her contributions go far beyond a single month or year.

Jeanne A. Cote

In 1965 when our father & company founder Louis P. Cote passed away many things could have happened to this company. But his wife, our mom, Jeanne Cote assumed ownership and kept a handle on the business while it was run by several different people for the next few years. Jeanne worked in the office & dealt with the financial aspects of the business. She became the “Chief cook and bottle washer”. On weekends or after hours she could often be found cleaning the offices & washing the floors. If a salesman came looking for the owner on the weekend she’d tell him she was just the cleaning lady. I’d like to have seen their face when they came back Monday morning to find the cleaning lady in the boss’s chair! She kept everything going until John & Don were out of college and they were able to take charge of the company in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. She continued working at “The Shop”, as our family has always called it, until the late 1970’s.

Since that time she has been kept very busy by her 18 grandchildren & 14 great-grandchildren. She’s now 91, and while we no longer make her ride in every new truck we get, she is still there with encouragement for us and of course the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. For everything she has done and all she continues to do, we thank her!