SUE KILLIAN | SERVER

In 1975, Sue Killian and her husband were looking for a way to make some extra money to support their four young children. Killian’s husband worked during the day, so the logic was that she could work at a restaurant in the evening and they’d trade off caretaking duties.

Killian recently celebrated her 47th year of working at El Cholo. She also recently celebrated her 80th birthday. Killian has always been a server at the restaurant — with the exception, she notes, of her first six months on the job, when she was a hostess. She currently works a couple of days a week and has no plans to retire.

When Killian, who is from Coldwater, Mich. (“They’ve got one season, as far as I’m concerned, that’s livable,” she said), moved with her husband to the more temperate climes of Berkeley in 1964, she admits to experiencing some culture shock.

“It was wild for us,” she said. “We lived in a small little town.” In 1969, they moved to Southern California when her husband was transferred.

Over the years, in addition to El Cholo, Killian has worked for the California Farm Bureau, done payroll for a construction company and opened a tanning salon.

“I get very bored at home,” she said. “I like to see people; I don’t like being [cooped] up.”

Killian spoke of the joys of watching people grow up in the restaurant over the decades, as well as the dedication of her co-workers during a time when staffing difficulties are rampant in the industry.

“I drive down the street and I go by these real nice restaurants that are a chain, and they’re having trouble getting people to work for them. El Cholo does not have that problem,” she said. “At least this one doesn’t.”