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85 and a hostess at McDonald’s

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By Rick McCrabb, Columnist Updated 8:55 AM Friday, November 27, 2009

Martha Horton, already 20 years past possible retirement age, isn’t planning on leaving her part-time job.

Why should she? Because, as the woman who turned 85 this month said, “It keeps me living.”

For the last 15 years, Horton, of Middletown, has worked as a hostess in the McDonald’s lobby on Breiel Boulevard.

“I can’t walk that good,” she said.

But that doesn’t stop her from cleaning tables, sweeping the floor, and most importantly, being customer friendly.

Margie Gayheart, second assistant manager at McDonald’s, called Horton “a great employee” who’s more dependable than some of her co-workers, old enough to be her great-great-grandchildren.

“You can count on her,” Gayheart said.

Horton said she “doesn’t like to sit around.” Since she no longer drives, a bus picks her up and drops her off at work, and her daughter or son-in-law take her home.

She works 16 hours a week, four days a week. It’s not really work for Horton. She’s paid to be herself. She’s as popular at McDonald’s as the french fries.

“I like to cut up with the people here,” she said recently before starting her shift. “I pick on them, and they pick on me. We have a good time.”

Horton has worked most of her life. Raised in Beattyville, Ky., Horton, one of 11 children, dropped out of high school her sophomore year to work on the family farm.

She moved to Dayton when she was 18 to live with her older sister and care for her nephew.

In 1943, she began her career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. I asked her what she did there.

“Something to do with airplanes,” she said. That’s one of the joys of being 85. You can say what you want.

She later worked for Inland Manufacturing Co. in Dayton and for G.C. Murphy department store in Lebanon for 13 years.

She has one daughter, Sharon Gibbons, 57, and three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She was married for 33 years, but she’s not looking in the lobby for her next husband.

“One is enough,” she said.

Then she got serious.

“You know,” she said, “I’m a little surprised I’m still living. I thank the good Lord that He has let me live this long.”

Contact this

columnist

at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.

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I worked with Martha for two years and loved to listen to her talk she always had a story to tell. She is the sweetest women and very funny!

Alicia
4:52 PM, 11/27/2009

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I worked with martha for 8 years was on of her managers for almost a year an she was so sweet she is like my grandmother so sweet. she knows no stranger. I hope she's around for many more years of work.

Lindsay
2:40 AM, 11/27/2009

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I hope her raises have been current each and every year that she has been working for McDonalds. She needs a raise!

mdizzie
6:43 PM, 11/26/2009

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