America’s oldest WWII veteran wants to stay home, but can’t afford it

Photo courtesy of Overton family/Wyatt McSpadden

Richard Overton in his home in Austin, Texas.

AUSTIN, Texas — Richard Arvin Overton was born before Henry Ford introduced the Model T, before the Titanic embarked on her doomed maiden voyage and before New Yorkers watched the first ball drop in Times Square.

At 112, he is America’s oldest veteran and is believed to be the third-oldest man in the world. He needs costly 24-hour care, even if he has become adept at fighting off bouts of pneumonia.

But Overton isn’t about to give up living in the Austin, Texas, house he built after he returned from World War II for life in an assisted-living facility — even if he can’t afford the costs himself. His care bills total about $15,000 a month, which is why his family set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with the expenses.

The Department of Veterans Affairs would pay for him to move into an assisted-living facility, but the supercentenarian’s home means everything to him.

“That home is his heart, his memories, it is his everything,” Overton’s cousin Volma Overton, 70, told CNBC. “Moving him out of this house is what’s going to put him in the grave.”

“I’ve talked to so many people my age who moved their loved ones out of their homes and that really seemed to be the beginning of the end,” he added.