Waldo McBurney
Ralph Waldo McBurney was said to be the oldest worker in the United States. Until a relatively short time before his death at age 106, he lived and worked as a beekeeper in the city of Quinter, Kansas. He was born in Quinter and had lived in the Quinter area for many years. He also lived near the Kansas cities of Sterling and Beloit. In his last years, he was recognized nationwide for his longevity.
Personal life
He was the third of six children born to George R. and Mary B. McBurney. After two years at Sterling College, he transferred to the Kansas State Agricultural College, from which he graduated in 1927. Two years later, he married the former Irene Spear; together, they had three children. After her death in 1960, he married the former Vernice Forman in 1962, twelve years younger than he; Vernice died in 2016 at the age of 102. He suffered a heart attack in 1994, but continued competing afterward. He died at the Gove County Medical Center in Quinter on July 8, 2009.McBurney served as an elder in the Quinter congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and his father and his son Kenneth both served as ministers in the same denomination. His father, too, was long-lived, being the oldest minister in the denomination at his death.