AUSTIN, TEXAS — Richard Arvin Overton, the nation’s oldest living war veteran — and the oldest man in the U.S. — died Thursday in Austin at the age of 112 after a bout with pneumonia.
Born near Bastrop, Texas, on May 11, 1906, Overton served a three-year stint in the U.S. Army during World War II. He fought in the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion during WWII, serving as a corporal in the South Pacific. Overton joined his all-black military unit in 1942, and became a skilled sharpshooter.
After the war, Overton built a home in East Austin where he a neighborhood fixture usually out on his front porch puffing on a cigar while holding court as admirers spontaneously dropped by to meet him. “His front porch is his everything,” Volma Overton, his septuagenarian cousin who helped care for him, once told the Washington Post. “It’s his throne.”
In interviews with myriad media outlets, Overton spoke of his fondness for cigars in which he indulged daily — sometimes up to 12 smokes a day, he would note unabashedly. In interviews, he often credited his love of stogies, along with a splash of whiskey in his morning coffee and a steady diet of fried catfish and ice cream as secrets to his longevity. He also expressed a fondness for Dr. Pepper.
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He outlived two wives and close family members, and received countless honors and accolades along the way — including a 2013 visit to the White House where he met President Barack Obama as a relative youngster of 107. He met Obama at the White House for breakfast ahead of a Veterans Day ceremony at the National Cemetery where he was honored.
“His service on the battlefield was not always matched by the respect that he deserved at home,” Obama said at the time. “But this veteran held his head high.”
Overton earlier this year came close to losing his home in East Austin — once an enclave largely inhabited by a black and Latino working class that’s been swept over by gentrification for the better part of a decade or so as an influx of younger residents are lured to trendy restaurants and bars and plentiful luxury apartments where single-family homes once stood. Gentrification-fueled spikes in property taxes threatened to render Overton unable to afford staying in his home, and he faced the likelihood of spending his final years in a nursing home.
But in a sign of the depth of affection residents of Austin — and admirers far beyond the city limits — had for Overton, a GoFundMe campaign designed to keep him at his home ultimately would raise more than $450,000 for 24-hour-a-day home care.
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From near and far, people expressed their condolences late Thursday as news of Overton’s death spread. Gov. Greg Abbott called the late veteran “…an American icon and a Texas legend” in a prepared statement, adding his and his wife’s voice in expressing sympathies.
“With his quick wit and kind spirit, he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honored to have known him. Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans. We can never repay Richard Overton for his service to our nation and for his lasting impact on the Lone Star State. On behalf of Texas, Cecilia and I offer our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.”
The governor also shared a photo on his Twitter account recording a personal moment he had with the late veteran on his 110th birthday:
Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody also expressed condolences via Twitter: “My family and I extend our prayers and condolences to the family of oldest living veteran Mr. Overton,” Chody wrote. “We were saddened to hear of his passing. We are grateful and indebted for his service to our country.”
U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, representative for Texas’s 25th congressional district, also issued a statement in reaction to Overton’s passing: “I join the Austin community and the entire country in mourning the loss of a great man, and our nation’s oldest veteran, Mr. Richard Overton. Throughout my time in Congress, I have had the honor of getting to know Mr. Overton very well — sitting on his porch and listening to him tell stories are memories I will never forget. I am thankful for his service to our country, and I am eternally grateful to have had him in my life as a friend and role model. I will miss him dearly and will continue to pray for his family during this difficult time.”
State Rep. Lloyd Doggett of the 35 District of Texas, added his voice via Twitter: “Saluting Richard Overton for his service, spirit, and longevity. One of the last of our World War II vets has passed away at age 112. Pleased that he could share so many honors late in life, including, here, my getting the healing garden at our veterans clinic named in his honor.”
The U.S. Army paid tribute via social media as well: “Today we mourn not just a hero, but a legend. The oldest American #WWII Veteran, Richard Overton, died at the age of 112. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Overton family. He was a hero to us all. May you rest in peace Sir.”
In its own dispatch announcing the death, the venerable Stars and Stripes newspaper put Overton’s long life in historical perspective: “Richard Overton, the oldest-living veteran, was born on May 11, 1906, the same year as the first wireless radio broadcast, and a year before Oklahoma became a state. He died Thursday at the age of 112.”
In 2015, Austin filmakers Rocky Conly and Matt Cooper made a short film about Overton. In the opening moments of the film, the then-109-year-old Overton noted with palpable drive he had just had his driver’s license renewed.
“I still walk, I still talk and I still drive,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve had a lot of people say God kept you here to help others. But I don’t know why he kept me here. I can’t tell you.”
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