[SkyPilot]

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

_{Richard Overton, 111, smokes a cigar on his front porch on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Austin. Overton is known for smoking cigars and drinking whiskey on his front porch. He is the oldest living U.S. war veteran.}

_{Richard Arvine Overton, America's oldest-living verified war veteran, served in the South Pacific from 1940 through 1945 and left the U.S. Army as a corporal.}

_{In March 2017, Richard Overton was given a special presentation honoring him as the oldest living American war veteran, during a timeout in an NBA basketball game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.}

_{Medals, ribbons and patches that Richard Overton, 111, earned during his time in the U.S. Army are displayed in his living room in Austin.}

_{Richard Overton (left) smokes a cigar with neighborhood friends Donna Shorts (center) and Martin Wilford in May 2015, in Austin, when Overton was 109. Wilford says that he has known Overton for 37 years and he looks at Mr. Overton as if he were his biological father}

_{Martin Wilford, a relative of Richard Overton, pulls one of his cousin's whiskey bottles from a dresser drawer. Overton has them stashed all over the house, especially after receiving more than 40 for his 111th birthday.}

[SkyPilot]

Ping

[raybbr]

In before “this guy does all this crap so everyone can do it too and live this long” crowd.

[rednek]

The man has good taste in whiskey. Woodford Reserve is good stuff!.....red

[albie]

Some people simply have the genes.

[tflabo]

God and cigars, eheheh. Looks like Rush will be around for a few more decades. 👍🏼

[Fresh Wind]

Without the cigars and whiskey, he’d probably live to 150.

Just kidding. God has blessed you, Mr. Overton!

[Cen-Tejas]

Well dang! I’m proud of my little uber liberal town honoring this old vet and funding a “go fund me” site.

He was born 7 yea s before my dad and my dads been gone 39 years!

[bgill]

To think he could live to 211 if only he led a healthy lifestyle.

[Theophilus]

What a man! God bless him.

[Grampa Dave]

A few years back ago our personal MD and a good friend told us, where we had spent too much research money in medicine.

He said that we spent too much money researching just sick people.

He felt that doctors across America should identify the really healthy patients in their practice.

Then, medical researchers should spend time with those people doing DNA studies, life style studies, pysch profiles and their physical and mental abilities in their senior years. To find out what made them so different.

He had about 3 dozen patients in his practice, family members, including his FIL who was active past his 100th birthday. He knew of non patients like my wife’s mother and my mother, who were active up to 90+ and others he knew personally.

Besides the obvious benchmark of living a long life keyed by their DNA, he identied some key factors.

#1 Their lives were basically based on no extremes or as he labeled, a life of moderation. They lived life and were not wall flowers.
#2. They loved their families, friends, neighbors and were often, active members in a church or synagogue.
#3. Most of the men had served in the military and were proud that they did.
#4. Most had one marriage partner and 50 years+ of marriage were common.
#5. Their core friends were often from the same church and/or volunteer organizations.
#6. They loved food. Again everything in moderation. At least one or both partners were good cooks. They had their own gardens and found local farmers to buy local fresh food products. They had basically ended up with modified Med diets. They enjoyed their bacon, ham, eggs, steaks, pork, chicken and often loved good fresh sea food.
#7. They all drank wine at least once a day before or with the evening meal, some had a glass at noon/lunch. Hard liquor might be consumed on a special occassions, like one martini.
#8. They were active and the main exercise was daily walks and sometimes twice a day. No runners and none needing new knees and hips. Some played good tennis, swam and skied into their 80+ years. None needed by pass surgeries in spite of their diets.
#9. Their parents and grandparents often fitted into the same brackets and above.
#10. None of them smoked. If they had, it was for a short time. Some men and a few women enjoyed a cigar on special days.

His summary was: They enjoyed life and lived a good life. They enjoyed good health for all if not most of their lives.

So, he felt we needed to study these people to see what could be transfered to other people re life styles, not by medicine or surgery.

[COBOL2Java]

Awesome. Thank you for your service to our country, sir!

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

I don’t care how old he is, it still doesn’t make any of that right.

[chit*chat]

BFD . . . All the highlights of a boring life