Shelby Air Force veteran celebrates 101st birthday

Last Sunday, George Andrew Cunningham Beattie III turned a century plus one year.

The Air Force veteran celebrated his 101st birthday at Brookdale Senior Living with friends and family, and he shared some memories from his long life.

Beattie was born Oct. 29, 1922 in Glade Springs, Virginia.

“I feel fairly good for an older person,” Beattie said. “I’ve had a good life. I’ve enjoyed it. I feel good about being 101.”

He said the hardest thing about getting older was giving up driving, followed by riding his bicycle.

Beattie said he grew up on a farm with his parents and two siblings during the Great Depression, although he didn’t think about it being a depression at the time even though things were tough for the family after his father lost his job.

“My mother canned a lot,” Beattie said. “Having a big garden, we got through it.”

He knew he wanted to pursue higher education after high school, but there was no money for tuition.

Beattie said he heard about an opportunity to go to college if you joined the service as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal. He said he passed the military entrance exam and became a corporal in charge of 21 men. He was still on campus at the time and said their daily duty was marching out to the flagpole and putting the flag up every day.

Then the Battle of the Bulge took place.

Beattie said he and others were taken out of college and sent back to base.

“They sent me to school to learn about airplane engines,” he said.

He went to a small town in Illinois to complete a course and when he returned to base, he worked on the maintenance of the planes for the next six months.

“I was getting along fine with the maintenance of the airplanes when my mother sent me a letter,” he said.

“What have you done wrong? They’ve been here talking to all your school teachers and neighbors,” he said she wrote to him.

Beattie said the military was investigating his background preparing to send him on a secret mission. He said he made flights to major universities around the country and flew students to work on the atomic bomb.

After World War II, he was discharged and he got a job in the maintenance division of what was called Capital Airlines but after four or five years, Capital went out of business and United Airlines bought the remaining equipment and hired some of the former employees, including Beattie.

“They gave us four days to go look for a house in California,” he said.

Beattie and his wife went to California and rushed to pick out a home where they lived for a decade.

He said it was a wonderful life, and they traveled a lot.

Beattie, who said Dianne Feinstein was mayor during his California days, lived through many historical events, including the hippie movement, which he said was sometimes shocking.

The family eventually ended up in Shelby because of Beattie’s mother-in-law who lived with him and his first wife. She was from North Carolina and wanted to move back. When they started looking, they settled on Shelby where they eventually had a two-story redwood home built at Moss Lake. He said he chose redwood because it reminded him of the trees in California, and he thought they were beautiful.

When Beattie’s first wife died, he was single for 10 years and spent a lot of time traveling, including multiple trips to the Caribbean. Eighteen years ago, he met JoAnn, and they married.

“We’ve had a happy life,” he said.

As for how he’s achieved such a long life, Beattie said he thinks it’s mostly genes.

When asked for some advice gleaned over his many years, he had one thing to say.

“Keep your mouth shut and pay attention,” he said.

Then he laughed and added, “everyone always asks me that, and I never know what to say.”

Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Local Air Force veteran celebrates 101st birthday