ADDISON -- Wearing her pearls and polka dots, Ouida Caldwell walked through the cheering crowd Friday with a big smile on her face.
"Oh goodness gracious!" she said. "Y'all can keep going!"
The big welcome for Ouida happened at Mary Kay Headquarters in Addison. She arrived to celebrate a milestone: 50 years of selling Mary Kay products.
With cake and pink punch, they feted a 93-year-old who was there almost at the very beginning of the company. She first became an independent beauty consultant in 1966, selling out of her Richardson home. She was trained at the beginning by founder Mary Kay Ash herself.
"She was a wonderful, wonderful lady," Caldwell recalled. "She would boost your morale and say, 'You're not doing enough! Get out and do some more. You're capable!'"
Ouida certainly took that message to heart. Today, she is the oldest active Mary Kay consultant, still serving customers.
"I sold yesterday," she said. "Mary Kay always said, 'Send birthday cards.' And I send out, oh, 30 birthday cards every month."
With 50 years of experience, she knows the Mary Kay product line well -- and has been a devotee herself, faithfully applying her favorite product of them all, the company's Extra Emollient Night Cream.
In the early days, she also sold it to some unlikely customers.
"I sold the Extra Emollient Night Cream to the cowboys to put on their hands, because they did such rough work," Ouida said.
After this pause to celebrate, she said she'll get back to work next week, taking orders from customers over the phone and following up.
"Even if somebody says no, go right on and ask 'em next week," she said. "We don't take 'no' for an answer. We take 'no' as a challenge, and that brings on more sales."
When asked how long she plans to keep it up, she had a one word answer:
"Forever," she said.
Maybe that's her real anti-aging secret.