Richard Overton turns 109 on May 11, 2015. He’s the oldest living American veteran of World War II. He served from 1942 to 1945 in the Pacific, as part of the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion.
Overton told The Statesman he takes splashes of whiskey and chomps cigars on a daily basis.
He lives in the East Austin home he built after leaving the Army in 1945.
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“I’m nearly 109. If you fall and break a hip, they don’t fool with you no more,” Overton said, chuckling. “They just put you in a wheelchair and let you ride.”
Overton said he awakes at 6 a.m.
“And if I’m feeling alright like I am now and it ain’t raining, I get my broom and I sweep this whole driveway.”
Then he grabs a rake and cleans the dead leaves away from the bushes on his front lawn. He refuses to use a leaf blower or riding lawnmower.
“You don’t get no nudge,” Overton explains. “You got to strain and nudge, push. And when you get through pushing a lawnmower, you feel good. But if you go out there just sitting there riding, you never do nothin’,” he says.
>> Click here to watch the full interview on video on mobile or watch the embedded video, below.
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