America's oldest veteran is still smoking, drinking

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Richard Overton was right where he wanted to be.

He was sitting in a lawn chair on the front porch of the Austin home he built nearly 70 years ago, working on his fifth Tampa Sweet cigar on a 91-degree, sunny day. The smooth tunes of the Isley Brothers flowed from a portable speaker. Birds were chirping in the late-afternoon breeze.

"I'm feeling pretty good today," Overton said, emphasizing that any day spent on his porch smoking cigars is a pretty good day for the 111-year-old.

The house on Richard Overton Avenue — yup — is where you'll find the nation's oldest veteran 10 hours every day when the weather is nice. His friends call it his "stage." It's where Overton sits and thinks about life, his starting in 1906, the same year as the first wireless radio broadcast and a year before the paper towel was invented.

A soldier in the Army, he arrived by ship at Pearl Harbor in his segregated unit as black smoke filled the sky moments after the Japanese bombing. After returning from the war, he spent the bulk of his career working at furniture stores, then at the Texas Department of Treasury. He was a marksman, with a keen eye for hunting rabbits.

"But now, I just sit out here and rest," he said, releasing a plume of smoke.

Overton starts his mornings as early as 3 a.m., drinking two to four cups of coffee. He'll walk around his house to increase blood flow to his limbs, then smoke his first of 12 daily cigars. If he can, he'll fall back asleep. Every day, he's eager for the sun and the neighborhood to rise.

The supercentenarian has been married twice. He never had kids. He's outlived most of his relatives. He has a first cousin who lives down the street, and third cousins who stop by daily.

In December, they started a GoFundMe page to cover the cost of 24/7 in-home care so he could continue living in his home. Without his porch, they feared the worst. So far, they've raised nearly $190,000.

Overton has two caregivers who work 12-hour shifts. Among their other duties, they make him meals and keep track of his visitors, because people stop by all the time. Many bring gifts, like cigars and bottles of whiskey. That's his drink of choice — a whiskey and Coke — although these days, he admits, it's usually more Coke than whiskey.

Certificates, war medals and photos of those he's loved adorn almost every flat surface in his home. There are photos of Overton when he was in the Army, with broad shoulders, tight skin and a thin mustache. There's one with President Barack Obama, when the 44th president honored him at a Veterans Day ceremony in 2013.

He's met celebrities, politicians and athletes, all asking him the same question about his secret to longevity. His answer? God and cigars.

Until a recent battle with pneumonia — which included a four-day hospital stay during which he was not allowed to smoke, he noted — Overton used to take strolls up and down his street. Maybe he'll do that again if he builds enough strength.

For now, he's content to spend his hours on the stage. He stares at planes as they fly overhead and wonders where they're going. He talks with visitors and sings with the birds. He waves at honking cars, and gazes at the trees in the front yard that he planted long ago.

All while smoking a Tampa Sweet.