Mike Keagy celebrates centennial birthday next Friday

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Mike Keagy has been a Pampa Chamber of Commerce President (the first woman to do so), a Citizen of the Year and now she can add centennial to her list of accomplishments as she will hit the 100-year-old mark Friday, May 27.

Marilyn “Mike” Keagy (McGuire) was born May 27, 1922 in Richardson, Texas where her great-grandfather had settled in 1862. She graduated from Richardson High School in 1940.

Keagy met her husband, Bob, while she was between her junior and senior years in high school and he was in college.

“We had mutual friends who kept trying to get us together and we weren’t interested,” Keagy said. “Finally, at a little country fair, we ran into each other. He took me home and after that he told everybody he has been taking me home ever since. We were together for a long time.”

Bob is actually who gave Keagy the nickname “Mike,” that stuck with her entire life.

“My family name was McGuire, so my name was Mickey when I was in high school,” Keagy said. “So when I was in college, they tried to call me Mickey but he (her husband) had a friend named Mickey Smith, so he told me ‘Well, you’re Mike.’ That’s what I’ve been called ever since.”

The couple finally married April 24, 1943. Bob served in the Navy as an engineer during World War II.

Keagy and her husband, moved to Borger after World War II after he got a job at Phillips. After changing jobs to work for Cabot, the couple moved to Pampa, where they lived for six months before he got transferred to Guymon, Okla.

“We were there for 13 years and moved back here (in the late 1950s),” Keagy said. “We’ve been here ever since. We’ve been in this house more than 60 years.”

The couple had four children and nine grandchildren and multiple great-grandchildren.

After his retirement from Cabot, Bob continued to serve the community taking people to the doctor and other service projects. Bob passed away about 17 years ago.

“We had a wonderful life,” Keagy said. “He was a wonderful husband and we had a great time.”

After coming back to Pampa, Keagy was a homemaker until her kids moved out of the house and she decided to go into real estate.

“I was 50 years old when I started in real estate,” Keagy said. “Judy Edwards and I bought Quentin Williams from Quentin Williams. When we bought the business, interest rates were 18 percent. So you know much we sold (Keagy said with a chuckle).”

Through her career in real estate, she formed relationships with several who would become family friends.

“I have lots of extra family,” Keagy said. “I made lots of friends. I wouldn’t take anything away from my real estate career. What made me happy is a lot of them seemed to be happy with how I did business.

After Bob passed, Keagy and four women formed the Widow’s Club, which grew over the years.

“Me and four women went out to eat once a week,” Keagy said. “I thought to myself, there are probably other women like this. So gradually the Widow’s Club was organized and we still go out once a month for dinner. Up until [my health situation], it had grown to where I called 50 people. We usually have about 30.”

Keagy is a member of First United Methodist Church with a church family she said has been supportive and “wonderful.”

Keagy said the key to making it to 100 is having a great life and her faith.

“I’ve had a great life,” Keagy said. “God’s been great to me. Up until this last year I haven’t had any serious ailments. Bob and I had a happy life. We traveled the world. We went to 19 different countries. He loved Switzerland, I loved Ireland.”

Keagy thanks everyone in her family, friends, community and the home health crew for all of their support and friendship.