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Austinite Ophie Garcia, 81, has been working at H-E-B for more than 53 years

The Austinite started working at the Halingen H-E-B in late 1964 and became a full-time partner just a few months later. Now she works at the H-E-B in Oak Hill and is the longest-tenured employee with the company.

AUSTIN — (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN) When Ophie Garcia walked into her first day on the job at H-E-B, she was a 27-year-old mother who was thrilled to be making 75 cents an hour selling tobacco.

It was the mid-1960s — just a few days before New Year’s Day 1965, to be exact — and Garcia had already been working for more than 15 years.

She grew up in a migrant community in South Texas, and when her father died when she was in eighth grade, she knew she had to get a job, either in the fields or somewhere else.

“You’re too young to be picking cotton and tomatoes,” she recalls the local drugstore owner telling her; instead, he offered her a job as a soda jerk, making sandwiches and serving customers who came in for a bite to eat.

Eventually, she was earning 35 cents an hour. But then the H-E-B in Harlingen offered twice what she was making at the drugstore.

This story originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman. Click here to read the full story.

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