By WMBD TV

NORMAL – The McDonald’s on South Main Street celebrated the retirement of Steve Petty Wednesday morning.

If you visited that McDonald’s there’s a good chance you saw Petty. He has spent his entire 36-year career at the same location.

Employees, former coworkers and longtime customers showered him with words of encouragement and gifts. The biggest gift was a lettermen-style McDonald’s jacket.

Stephanie Schempp has been working with Petty his entire career as she moved up the ranks. She said she’ll miss the man who taught her how to make fries.

“He says I’m his best friend. I take that to heart. I’m going to miss him a lot,” said the executive assistant for Millan/Petro McDonald’s Organization.

Schempp added Petty is the reason behind their high customer ratings.

“We certainly hope that we can uphold the customer satisfaction that Steve’s always provided to our customers and hopefully they’ll visit us still. But we will miss him. We’ll definitely miss him,” she said.

Petty is moving to Wisconsin to be with family. He hopes to work at a McDonald’s in the Badger State. Schempp said he already has a great letter of recommendation.

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