Quinter's icon McBurney dies
By MIKE CORN
QUINTER -- Waldo McBurney, the icon of the idea that good, healthy living will lead to a long, active life, has died at 106 years old.
McBurney claimed the spotlight in 2006 when he was named America's oldest worker by the Washington-based America Works, the nation's largest provider of training and employment services for older workers.
But he already had seen his share of the spotlight in his role as an award-winning athlete in senior games, running and throwing the shot put, for example. He also was the author of a book, "My First 100 Years," that was so successful that it's gone through several printings already.
He's been on national television countless times and featured in many national and local newspapers. Online, there's even a Wikipedia page about him.
McBurney died Wednesday night. He was born Oct. 3, 1902, about 3 miles southeast of Quinter.
"I was away about 30 years and came back to spend the rest of my time and die here," McBurney said in a interview with The Hays Daily News in 2004.
In his time away, he attended Kansas State University, taught vocational agriculture and was a county agent in Beloit and Hill City.
Then he returned home to Quinter.
Through the course of the years, McBurney did financial work, his desk in his downtown office covered with magazines and books on the topic. He also maintained honey bees in the back yard of his Quinter residence, about two blocks away from his office, and in clover fields north and south of Quinter.
Sharon DuBois had the chance to work with McBurney when he was making an audio version of the book using recording equipment set up in the Jay Johnson Library in Quinter where she is the librarian.
Because of the layout of the library, DuBois said the children had to be quiet so their voices were not heard on the recordings. It was difficult, she said, but the children were able to do just that.
"It was just wonderful," she said of McBurney reading his own book for the audio version.
DuBois had nothing but kind words for the community's oldest worker, who would walk through downtown Quinter each morning to pick up his mail from the post office.
McBurney lived a simple life, she said, and she admired him because of it.
He was willing to offer advice on living that simple life, but DuBois said he never was willing to tell somebody anything "that he wasn't willing to do himself."
She said McBurney believed it was possible to overcome some genetic shortcomings through diet and exercise.
His fame as a senior athlete helped spur the creation of the Waldo McBurney run in Quinter, which was completed late last month.
"They had over 200 entries this year," DuBois said.
McBurney admitted he was slowing down in late 2007. His wife, Verniece, had been ailing, and he said his balance was questionable.
Niece Norma Chestnut, who along with her husband, Sam, have been local caretakers, said a service is planned for 10 a.m. Tuesday in Church of the Brethren, which they hope will be able to handle mourners.
She also said they have been assured that changes can be made to the headstone he purchased when his first wife died in 1960. At the time, the carving anticipated he would die in the 1900s.
While there have been a number of suggestions on how to handle the date-of-death details on the headstone, McBurney wouldn't hear of them.
"I don't make goals," McBurney said at the time. "I'm not making goals. I'm taking what the Lord gives me.
"I'll miss him," DuBois said of McBurney. "We're pretty sure where he went. And that's good."