Smoking cigars is a daily ritual for Overton, who is not only the oldest living man in America, but the oldest American veteran of World War II. His typical day involves rising early (sometimes he gets up at 3 a.m.), brewing coffee and smoking cigars. He’s good for about 12 cigars a day.
Reached on his birthday, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, he had already smoked six.
“I’m happy every day,” he said while puffing a cigar in his home. “I don’t have no worries. I feel fine—I ain’t got no aches, pains or nothing.”
Overton was born in St. Mary's Colony, Texas, outside of Austin, on May 11, 1906, only three years after the first flight of the Wright Brothers. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1942 through 1945, fighting for the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. His service took him to the South Pacific, where the United States would fight some of its bloodiest battles, and his group built airfields to fight the Japanese as the United States hopped ever closer to the Japanese mainland. His boots hit the beaches of Guam, Hawaii, Palau and the volcanic Japanese island of Iwo Jima, where one of the fiercest battles in the history of war took place. In five weeks, more than 6,800 Americans lost their lives. cigars is a daily ritual for Overton, who is not only the oldest living man in America, but the oldest American veteran of World War II. His typical day involves rising early (sometimes he gets up at 3 a.m.), brewing coffee and smoking cigars. He’s good for about 12 cigars a day.
Reached on his birthday, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, he had already smoked six.
“I’m happy every day,” he said while puffing a cigar in his home. “I don’t have no worries. I feel fine—I ain’t got no aches, pains or nothing.”
Overton was born in St. Mary's Colony, Texas, outside of Austin, on May 11, 1906, only three years after the first flight of the Wright Brothers. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1942 through 1945, fighting for the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. His service took him to the South Pacific, where the United States would fight some of its bloodiest battles, and his group built airfields to fight the Japanese as the United States hopped ever closer to the Japanese mainland. His boots hit the beaches of Guam, Hawaii, Palau and the volcanic Japanese island of Iwo Jima, where one of the fiercest battles in the history of war took place. In five weeks, more than 6,800 Americans lost their lives. (Read full text at Cigar Aficionado's website)
