A Maryland woman is celebrating her 100th birthday and is one of the oldest active real estate agents in the country.
Like many of us, Mary Wykes drives herself to work every day. But unlike most of us, she was born in the 1920s.
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WATCH HERE“I have a license until I’m a hundred and six,” she said with a laugh.
Wykes has been a real estate agent since 1979, when she decided at age 54 to leave her job in the federal government after nearly 20 years and change careers. She worked as an employee development specialist after jobs with IBM and other companies. She also worked as a church secretary and a high school teacher.
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SIGN UP Wykes said she decided to become a real estate agent because of something her father said as she grew up on their family farm.
“My dad, who was a dairy farmer, always said, ‘Mary, work for yourself.’ And I could never figure out a way to do that. Until one time I heard that a secretary [colleague] had just taken the real estate course,” she said.
Wykes has helped people buy and sell their homes ever since.
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“It’s just a pleasure, and I love the people I work with,” she said.
Wykes’ boss told News4 Wykes is active and earning commission checks.
“I’ve never met anybody quite so positive and quite so inspirational. At a hundred! You would never know it. She works all the time. She’s fastidious about what she does. She’s just good people,” said Janice Raffel of Long and Foster.
Wykes said longevity runs in her family. Her mother lived to 99, an aunt was 100 and her father’s cousin was 105, she said.
So, what’s her secret?
“My granddaughter asked me that the other day and my answer to her was: good genes and a lot of luck and believing in the kindness of people and – take one day at a time and [believe] in livelong learning,” she said. “Never retiring. Enjoy your work. Never retire.”
Wykes has no plans to slow down. In fact she just ordered a new box of business cards.
She’ll celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday with friends and family, including great-grandchildren.
