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

McBurney, whose life spanned an age of horse-drawn buggies to computers, died at the Gove County Medical Center in his hometown, according to the Schmitt Funeral Home in Quinter.

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

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

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 enjoyed running since childhood and at 65 took up long distance running. A decade later he began competing in the Senior Olympics, the World Masters and other events, winning 10 gold medals for track and field events.

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