90-Year-Old Woman Retires After 74 Years of Work

A 90-year-old employee at Dillard’s has retired after 74 years of working and never missed a single day at her job.

After working there for more than seven decades, Melba Mebane has just retired from her retail job at Dillard’s department store.

The Texas native first started working there as an elevator girl in 1956; she was only 17 at the time. Later she was moved to the cosmetics department.

Mebane is known at her workplace for showing up every day with a smile on her face and never taking a sick day even once.

Speaking to Fox News, the store manager of Dillard’s in Tyler, James Saenz, said Melba touched so many lives during her tenure at the department store.

“Melba sets the tone for everything, every expectation, every customer service quality that we look for in a luxury experience. She provides all of it to the team. Can you imagine how many people she coached and taught and trained to aspire to be more?” he said.

He said the devoted worker touched many lives in her career and helped so many people with her life-saving advices.

According to James, customers love Melba because of her sweet, go-getter, and kind personality, and many even come to the store because of her.

Melba’s son Terry Mebane also talked to the news outlet and said he has always adored his mum’s work ethic and devotion toward her job.

“She’s a grinder. The store would open at 10 and she wanted her parking spot, so she got there between 9 o’clock and 9:15,” he said. “She was the first person in the door and had her counter ready. She did the prep work. She only took 30 minutes for lunch.”

“She brought her lunch, went upstairs to eat lunch in 25 minutes, and then she was back on the floor because she knew that people often took off [during] their lunch hour to come to the mall to buy what they were going buy, and she didn’t want to miss her opportunity,” he added.

 Even in her 70s and 80s, Melba was working 40 hours a week and her son, Terry drove her to and from work every single day. However, when she turned 90 years old, she started facing some health issues, so Melba decided to retire from her job.

The store manager and her colleagues threw a retirement party for Melba, who said they will miss her very much.

“It will remain here for as long as Dillard’s is around. Beyond Excellence is for her decades of service beyond expectations,” James said about a plaque featuring Melba’s photo that is now hanging on the wall inside the Tyler store.

“Even [with] the changing times, from where she started to where we are now in the modern world, her values and everything still stand.”

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Source: KLTV 7Fox News

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