‘Mighty fine at 109’: America’s oldest vet marks birthday with cigar

Posted 2015-05-11 20:33 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

Richard Overton feels a “little stiff” from time to time and he’s cut out the whiskey but other than that, he feels pretty good.

Not bad for America’s oldest living military veteran, who turned 109 on Monday.

“I get around pretty good, just get a little stiff. I’m doing all right, I guess,” Overton told FoxNews.com, as he waited at his Austin, Texas, home for a car to pick him up to take him to meet Gov. Greg Abbott.

“Gonna go see the governor,” he added. “He wants to talk to me.”

The World War II veteran’s friends and family tossed a birthday party for him last week, with as many as 100 people in attendance. Neighbor Helen Elliot organized and hosted the party, which was sponsored by Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries and Shakes. The theme for the day was “Mighty Fine at 109.”

“He’s just the coolest neighbor on the planet,” Elliot told Fox affiliate KTBC. “He’s so much fun and always has the best stories.”

Overton served from 1942-45, with stops in Hawaii, Guam, Palau and Iwo Jima while attaining the rank of sergeant. He saw many of his Army buddies die serving their country, and the rest have passed away since the war ended. He said he misses the soldiers who served with him in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion, and would love to reminisce with them.

“I’m the only one that can tell the tale now,” he said. “All the other boys are gone.”

Born on May, 11, 1906, in Texas’ Bastrop County, Overton worked in the furniture business and then with the Texas Treasury Department in Austin after he got out of the Army. He married twice but never fathered any children and still attends church every Sunday.

“I got good health and I don’t take any medicine,” he told FoxNews.com in 2013. “I also stay busy around the yards, I trim trees, help with the horses. The driveways get dirty, so I clean them. I do something to keep myself moving. I don’t watch television.”

Overton lights up a dozen cigars a day, but he’s stopped taking a shot of whiskey in his morning coffee.

“Don’t drink that whiskey any more,” he said.

He met President Obama in 2013, at an event at Arlington National Cemetery, where the president singled out Overton during his remarks.

“When the war ended, Richard headed home to Texas to a nation bitterly divided by race,” Obama said at the time. “And his service on the battlefield was not always matched by the respect that he deserved at home. But this veteran held his head high. He carried on and lived his life with honor and dignity.”