KENNESAW, Ga. -- The smell of coffee wafts through Lee Wallace's house before 3 a.m. each day. There is much she wants to accomplish before 9 a.m.
First there is coffee to make. Next, there are prayers to be said. After that, there is exercise, either on the treadmill or with her stretch bands. There is Nicky the cockatiel to feed, and then breakfast to cook for her husband Jim.
By 9 a.m., Lee has had a full day, but that's when she heads off to her full-time day job. Since the doors opened 19 years ago at the Costco in Kennesaw, Lee has been there, cooking up samples for CDS, a company that works with Costco.
On her feet, six hours a day, five days a week, she sells. Her boss, David Beaudry says, "Some of the kids have chairs. She don't need a chair. She don't want a chair."
At some point, people realized that Lee was older than her colleagues..by several decades. She is 92. Beaudry adds, "She's one of the fastest cookers that we have here." And that's not all. "She has the highest sales."
Her co-worker Karen Grad says, "No matter how busy it is or slow it is Lee will be there doing her job, and she barely ever wants to take a break."
There was the one time she had to take a break. "She had breast cancer and two weeks later she came back to work."
On her days off, she carts Costco's day-old baked goods to her church, gives communion to nursing home residents, then it's back to her station.
The fact that she's 92 years old? Beaudry says, "I know that and I don't care because you see her over here right? She's probably one of the best employees in the whole building."
Lee even has fans, customers who come for a sample and a hug. Grad says, "You can look around everyone knows Miss Lee. They love her. It's truly a love story."
Her age begs the question -- when will she retire. "I'm not going to retire until the lord tells me to retire."
When it comes to the elderly and aging, Lee defies conventional wisdom. Maybe because she's not conventional.
"If you can move around and do something you ought to do it. You gotta move around."
