Waldo McBurney | Oldest U.S. worker, 106

Waldo McBurney, 106, who was named America's oldest worker and gained fame in his later years as a competitive runner and beekeeper, died Wednesday.

Mr. McBurney, whose life spanned eras from horse-drawn buggies to computers, died in a hospital in his hometown of Quinter, Kan.

In 2006, he was named America's oldest worker by Experience Works, which provides training and employment for senior citizens. At 104, he was still spry and agile, walking most days the few blocks from his home to his downtown office in his High Plains farming community.

He got his first paying job at 13, guiding the lead team of horses pulling a wheat thresher. He started a seed-cleaning business in the 1950s and ran it until he was 91.

Mr. McBurney then took his decades-old hobby of beekeeping and turned it into a business of selling honey, which he sold last year after saying he was slowing down.

He stopped competing in 2004 and wrote his autobiography, My First 100 Years! A Look Back from the Finish Line. - AP