Memorial Day ** Saluting a Living Symbol of World War I

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Maryland Man, 103, to Be Honored on Memorial Day

 

By Ann E. Marimow

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page C01

 

In his 103 years, Lloyd Brown has learned these life lessons: Help out

with the dirty work, be fair to your colleagues and follow the rules.

But Brown will be honored tomorrow because he broke the rules.

 

Brown is one of the nation's last veterans of World War I. He will ride

in the National Memorial Day Parade as a living testament to the 4.7

million U.S. servicemen of the Great War -- and to longevity.

 

Brown was eager to join the Allied cause in 1918, but he was only 16, so

he fibbed about his age. His Maryland driver's license still lists

10-7-99 - that's 1899 - as his birth date, instead of the correct 1901.

 

" Everybody was patriotic; everybody wanted to join, " he said. " Those who

joined were local heroes, well received on the public streets. "

 

It didn't hurt, he added with a grin, that the boys in uniform were

popular with the girls.

 

Parade organizers were preparing to recruit war reenactors to represent

World War I veterans when they learned about Brown, who lives in

Southern Maryland. He is one of 30 veterans still living, according to

an unofficial estimate kept by the Department of Veterans Affairs. And

that roster is rapidly dwindling.

 

The son of a Missouri stonemason, Brown battled Spanish flu in

Philadelphia; played cello in Australia as a member of the Navy

admiral's orchestra; served as a firefighter for the District; and sold

antique clocks and furniture in Charlotte Hall, where he lives now.

 

He has survived six brothers, two sisters, two wives and one son.

 

At times, Brown loses track of the moment, but he speaks about the past

as if it were the present. From a rocking chair in his living room,

Brown recalled patrolling the North Atlantic for enemy submarines aboard

the USS New Hampshire. He described with scientific precision how he

learned to splice ropes and fold his sleeping hammock into a string bean.

 

Brown reenlisted after the war as a musician on the USS Seattle,

traveling to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia, and developing an

appetite that has not diminished with age.

 

When he left the Navy in 1926, Brown was 5 feet 10 inches tall and

weighed 175 pounds. At 103, he is 5 feet 8 inches and 190 pounds, with

lively blue eyes and enough white hair to comb.

 

" As long as I've got plenty of food and relatives nearby, I never get

too lonely, " he said.

 

Brown lives alone, but he has regular visits from Meals on Wheels and

his daughter, Nancy Espina, who checks on him every day.

 

He prefers cornflakes to eggs or ham and devours apple and lemon

meringue pies. He does not apologize for puffing on a tobacco pipe, a

habit since he was a kid.

 

" I don't inhale the smoke, therefore the smoke doesn't get in my lungs

at all, " he explained.

 

He keeps the hours of a teenager, watching television news programs

until after midnight and sleeping past noon. Last month, he jetted to

Daytona Beach, Fla., to visit family and friends.

 

When Espina, who is 65, was tired after touring each day, she recalled

her father would ask, " 'What's on the agenda for tomorrow?' "

 

Although he has a driver's license, Brown favors the golf cart parked in

front of his mint green cottage. He drives to the end of the gravel

driveway to pick up the mail and has been known to cross busy Route 5 to

visit the shopping plaza, despite warnings from local law enforcement

officers.

 

In the past six months, Brown began using a walker when the hip that he

broke nine years ago started bothering him again.

 

But one of his secrets, son-in-law Thomas Espina said, is not allowing

anything to bother him too much. And that goes for aging.

 

" I don't consider it a long life, " Brown said. " I feel as though there

are a lot of people around my age. "

 

A few minutes later, Brown remembered that he has outlived the magazine

he used to receive for World War I veterans. It stopped publishing a few

years ago.

 

" World War I people are getting scarce, " he said. " Nothing can be done

about that. "

 

Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.

 

© 2005 The Washington Post Company