The United States’ oldest living veteran will be able to stay at home to receive in-house care because of the more than $120,000 raised on a GoFundMe page.
Army veteran Richard Overton, 110, is believed to be the oldest living veteran and is in need of 24 hour care that the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t provide.
Overton has been living in the same Texas home for the past 70 years and when his caretaker starting experiencing health issues of her own, Overton’s family feared that he would have to be moved to an assisted living home.
“We all knew that if you move Richard out of his home, he’d die,” his third cousin, Volma Overton Jr told ABC News. “That home is everything for him.”
“His front porch is a special place,” Volma Overton told ABC News. “He always sits there and waves to people and everyone just comes by and talks to him.”
The fundraising campaign on the GoFundMe page, which was started by Volma Overton’s daughter Sarah, has raised more than $120,000 since its launch in December, which is enough to keep him in his home for more than 7 months.
Richard Overton was born in Bastrop County in May of 1906 and served in the Pacific Theater from 1942 to 1945 as part of the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion.
After serving, he sold furniture in Austin and later worked in the state Treasurer’s office.
He told TODAY that his secrets for his long last life is to chain smoke cigars, have a little whiskey with morning coffee and to eat fried catfish and peanut butter ice cream regularly.
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