The 80-year-old shift manager at the Cassano’s Pizza King restaurant on Smithville Road in Dayton will retire at the end of her shift today, Aug. 24, after 57 years with Cassano’s.
Cline was poised to take a job with a competing pizza restaurant when Vic Cassano Sr. asked her to work for him instead. She agreed, and stayed with Cassano’s through three generations, even teaching the late Vic Cassano Jr. “how to make pizza and how to shred cheese” when Vic Jr. was in high school, she said.
Why did she stay so long? “I had six kids that I had to raise and feed,” she said.
Mabel’s district supervisor, Brett Chapman, said she is a model employee. “In the 15 years I’ve known her, I can remember only one day that she took time off, and that was for a health reason,” Chapman said.
Company president Chris Cassano said Cline “gave Cassano’s 57 years and was a loyal employee.
“She worked for three generations of Cassanos and even taught my dad how to make pizzas,” said Cassano, who oversees the pizza chain with two other members of the third-generation pizza dynasty. “The Cassano family thanks her and wishes her well.”
Cline said she’s looking forward to resting her aching back a bit and to helping care for her great-grandson in the Dayton home that she has lived in for six decades. But, she added, she’ll miss her job.
“I’ve had a wonderful time working for Cassano’s. They’ve been very good to me. I’m going to miss them all.”
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