Lockheed Firing of ‘Cat Lady’ Stirs Storm

They call her the Cat Lady of Lockheed.

And for more years than she can remember, she has risen every morning at 2, brewed herself a cup of coffee, loaded her car with canned cat food and headed out on her self-avowed mission of mercy.

In the dawn, before most day-shift workers at the Burbank-based aerospace firm are even awake, 69-year-old Marie Newberry would make her rounds at the Lockheed plant.

Stopping in the parking lot, and in some equipment storage areas, she would laboriously open can after can after can of food for the scores of wild cats that live at the plant. Then, at 7 a.m., her mission complete, she would go to her job at Lockheed, where for 45 years she has worked at bending sheet metal into parts for airplanes.

Two weeks ago Newberry, who had worked longer than almost anybody at one of the most technically demanding jobs in the plant, was fired--not for her job performance, which management said was exemplary, but because she refused to stop feeding the cats.

“I told them, ‘You ask me to do anything with these machines here and I’ll do it,’ ” Newberry said , “ ‘but when you tell me not to help a living thing, well, there are just some things you have to do in your heart, even if you know the consequences.’ ”

In one of the most unusual grievances ever against Lockheed-California Co., the International Assn. of Machinists has taken up Newberry’s case, trying to get her back her job, or at least an honorable retirement, which would restore her pension and health benefits.

‘Chicken Thing to Do’

“In my opinion it was a chicken thing to do,” union spokesman Bob Guarino said. “I don’t like cats myself, but I adore the lady. Everyone is upset.”

Allen Lobato, who worked at Lockheed with Newberry for 35 years before retiring two weeks ago, says she was the best “lead man” he had ever worked for. The title refers to a supervisor’s assistant, who explains to others how to do a particular job.

“Some lead men yell if you don’t know how to do the job right away. But Marie was so patient with everyone,” Lobato said.

Some Lockheed officials also expressed dismay at Newberry’s firing.

“It’s a most unfortunate situation,” said company spokesman Richard Stadler. “She was counseled about it as long as four years ago and disobeyed. She was a good worker. It’s just that she loves cats. We are hoping something can be worked out.”

Cats have always roamed the plant, and until recently they were welcome because they kept the rodent population down. But in the last year the feline population has gotten out of hand.

“We aren’t talking about a handful of cats, we are talking about cats in the triple figures,” Stadler said.

Newberry said she once received an anonymous letter from a worker threatening to pour antifreeze on the cat food. She and other workers say they have occasionally seen employees throw tools at the cats, or throw newborn kittens on the roofs, where they ultimately leap to their death or die in the heat.

Still, most employees tolerate the cats. But recently a worker was scratched by a cat that had slipped into one of the offices. The company had to do something to decrease the cat population, Stadler said, so it hired a pest control company, which has trapped 45 cats in the last month.

Newberry explained why she continued to spend $35 a day feeding the cats despite the ultimatum from Lockheed and encounters with disgruntled neighbors.

Newberry grew up on an Iowa farm and came to California in 1942 when the Army transferred her husband. They were divorced a few years later, and she bought a house in Burbank, where she began feeding wild birds and stray cats.

She never really owned any of the cats, Newberry said.

“They just sort of moved in on me,” she explained.

One of the first of the hundreds of cats that have padded through Newberry’s life was a gray female she called “Momma.”

“I’d just marvel at her, she was so smart,” Newberry said, her blue eyes and strong face shining as she recalled the cat. “She was wild, but I could touch her. Well, she had some babies hidden in the bushes but got scared when workmen were clearing the lot. I told her, ‘Listen Momma, why don’t you bring them inside?’ Well, one at a time, she carried them in and put them under a chair. . . .”

Newberry moved 14 years ago after neighbors complained to city officials, who in turn told her she could have only four cats. She rented out the house and bought another. She also bought her first car and learned to drive so she could go back to the old neighborhood to feed the cats she had to leave behind.

One neighbor smashed her car window when she refused to stop feeding the cats, and someone would occasionally kill one of the animals and leave it near the feeding dishes.

Newberry said she likes the challenge of winning over “these independent creatures” who “just need a little help with the groceries.”

When skittish cats finally allow her to pick them up, she takes them to be spayed and inoculated. She said she pays half the normal price because the veterinarian is impressed with her dedication to keeping the animals healthy and free of offspring.

Store discount coupons help keep her feeding project going.

These days she has only four kittens staying in the house.

“They are just like Velcro,” she laughed, picking up one of the tiny, animated balls of fur clinging to her dress as she arose. With strong, tanned, working-woman’s hands, she cleaned the kitten with a sponge.

“It’s most like a mother’s tongue,” she explained.

Asked why she likes cats, she replied: “Well, they don’t say thank you. But then, neither do they go around bashing in your car, or killing other things for fun.”

Newberry said her firing did not really sink in until she went to the union hall to meet with officials about the grievance.

“I got a real sad feeling thinking about it. All the people I worked with were like my family,” she said. “I had thought about retiring before. But my mind wasn’t convinced. I’ve got a lifetime of hobbies I could do, like sewing and making flower arrangements.

“I like reading books on philosophy, metaphysics and religion. Not the fire-and-brimstone stuff, but books on how to be a better person. But I never get to it, because this cat thing is so time-consuming. “

Later, at her door, she paused.

“Since I was fired, people keep asking me, ‘Why didn’t you just stop feeding those cats?’

“Well, how can you stop?”

Times staff writer Craig Quintana contributed to this story.