Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Sue Plaster, who is still listing and selling properties at age 91, said the secret to staying active past 90 is simple: stay active.
“The older you get, the more important it is that you move,” she said.
“You know what I did this morning?” Plaster asked me during our Saturday, Jan. 22 telephone interview. “I went to work at 9 o’clock, then I went to a widows’ luncheon, and then I went back to work.”
She added that she only left the office after her broker Ron Blake insisted that no one would be dropping into the office during the chilly January weekend.
Active and agile body and mind
Although real estate can be a parttime occupation or even a hobby for some, Plaster said for her it is full-time work. She added that she sold the property for Keystone’s new Taco Bell and Dunkin’ and one of her sales near Tony’s Pizza in Theressa is being developed as a motel and storage facility.
Plaster acknowledges that staying active at her age does carry risks. A fall last week sent her to a hospital for x-rays to determine whether or not her hip was broken.
She also said keeping the mind active and agile is essential for seniors.
“My mother-in-law lived to be 100,” Plaster said. “She watched game shows, played bridge and did crossword puzzles.”
Plaster added that her husband’s mother motivated her to revitalize her own bridge hobby.
She is active in both Melrose and Keystone Heights bridge clubs and made an effort to keep her tables going throughout the pandemic.
Plaster is a past and current president of the Woman’s Club of Keystone Heights, and the chaplain for the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is also active in Save Our Lakes and Trinity Baptist Church.
Plaster describes herself as conservative, evangelical and hardcore patriotic.
She helped bring the second women’s pregnancy center to Florida in the 1980s.
From Iowa City to Keystone Heights
Plaster was born in Iowa City, Iowa to two pilots who flew missions during World War II. She said that as a teenager, she prayed the war would not leave her an orphan. Even though her mother survived the conflict, her father Alfred Ellis did not. Twenty-two days after the war ended, he was killed after his plane was sabotaged in Africa.
Plaster said she always wondered how and why the Germans could have sabotaged the aircraft, transporting a planeload of women pilots back to the states nearly a month after the war ended. She added that she only recently realized that the saboteurs were not Germans, but likely Muslims who despised the pants-wearing, career-minded, female pilots.
After college, Plaster started out as a social worker, helping migrants in Miami. From there she launched an executive search firm while her husband Dan constructed office parks in South Florida.
The family lived parttime in Miami and parttime on Lake Lanier north of Atlanta, until their son was killed in an Atlanta traffic crash. After the tragedy, the couple wanted to leave the Peach State behind.
One of their daughters lived in High Springs, but Plaster said the family’s interest in water skiing created the need for more open water than the nearby Santa Fe River.
Dan wanted a place with a nice golf course and the couple found what they were looking for on Lake Geneva. Sue has been there ever since.
New real estate agent at 71
Plaster said she got into real estate after pocketing a substantial sum on a Colorado land sale. She was looking for another parcel to invest in to defer the capital gain under a special section of the Internal Revenue Code, and found some commercial property on State Road 21, now the home of a massage therapy business.
After acquiring the building, she wound up renting it to real estate agent Chuck Willis and after some time, Willis invited Plaster to join him in the business.
Plaster already had a background in sales as a regional vice president for Primerica, a financial services firm.
So, at age 71, in 2001, Plaster earned her Florida real estate license and got to work. Her husband passed away 11 years later.
Plaster said she views the real estate business as an opportunity to help people, much in the same way she helped migrant workers in South Florida find healthcare or housing.
Plaster said the COVID lockdown presented a new challenge to her commitment to keep moving.
She said she vowed to get out of the house at least three times a day. Plaster usually fulfilled that vow by running business errands in the morning, picking up lunch at the senior center around noon and then going back into town around 3 p.m. for ice cream with her boyfriend, aged 90.
“We look like a couple of kids,” she said. “We’re the laughingstock of Keystone, walking around holding hands, 90 and 91.”
Business partner is granddaughter
Plaster has three daughters. The oldest, Katie lives in South Carolina and the middle daughter, Natalie works for American Airlines in Boston.
“She’s still a flight attendant at 68 and she looks damn good,” Plaster said, “really good.”
The youngest daughter, Dannette, the one who used to live in High Springs now lives in Worthington Springs where she owns around 30 horses and teaches horseback riding.
“She’s the baby at 65,” said Plaster. “All my kids are on Medicare.”
Dannette also has three children and five grandchildren who live in and around Union County.
One of those children is Plaster’s real estate business partner. Plaster said 32-year-old Olivia Elixson takes care of all the pair’s computer work, taking a significant load off her grandmother.
“It’s almost like I’m half retired,” Plaster said of Olivia’s help. “When I tell people my granddaughter is my business partner, I have to add that she’s 32, not three.”
