WWII vet in South Shore turns 100

May 1—SOUTH SHORE — With a sharp wit and a picture-perfect memory, a World War II veteran sat in his brand new recliner as he rattled off statistics about his 100 years on Earth.

Such as:

—His time in the Navy: 2 years, 9 months, 15 days.

—The duration of his marriage: 66 years, 3 months, 3 days.

Born on April 19, 1923, Virgil Headley hit the century mark just about two weeks ago. The following Sunday, he was sitting in Brush Creek Freewill Baptist Church and informed his granddaughter, Amy Russell, that 57 years ago — when he began attending Brush Creek — that particular Sunday fell on the 24th of April, not the 23rd like it did this year. April 24, 1966, was his first Sunday at the church that he still attends regularly.

"His memory is insane," Russell said.

Headley married his wife, Weltha Marie, on March 21, 1949, when he was 25 and she was just 14. She turned 15 a month later.

When Weltha — who went by Marie or "Eke" — died in 2015, Headley moved into his current home near the Double-A Highway in South Shore. He lives with his daughter, Joyce Kirk — Russell's mother.

Virgil and Weltha had five children — Kirk, Sheila Smith, K.O. Headley, Leonard Headley and Ada Faye Headley. Ada Faye died as an infant. Leonard is also deceased.

Headley has 10 great grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

Although legally blind and deaf for the past eight years, Headley hasn't let that hinder his routine, which includes regular exercise.

Headley still tends a garden.

"It's kindly early yet, but it's plowed and getting ready for it," he said on Friday afternoon.

He walks every day — even in the summer, in the heat of the day. He says it's good to work up a sweat.

"I don't worry about losing (weight), I worry about gaining," he said with a chuckle.

Friday is cleaning day. This past Friday, he was up about a half hour earlier than usual — "a minute 'til 6," to be precise — gearing up to sweep and mop. He's in bed by 10:30 nightly.

One of his great granddaughters recently asked him about the secret to a long life.

His answer: "Keep your mouth shut and don't tell anybody anything."

Good genetics helped, too. Headley's dad lived to age 91. His grandfather was 90; a great grandmother passed away at 92. and then there's "Granny."

"Granny was 97 ... never went to a doctor a day in her life," he said. "Smoked tobacco, too, but not out of a store."

Taking care of himself is another key to longevity.

For instance, he chewed instead of smoked. Gum, that is.

"I smoked a little when I was in the Navy," he said. "I went down to the pharmacy to get a carton of cigarettes (for $1.20), but the (no smoking light) was on until further notice. It was on any time they were loading planes or putting gas in. So, I walked on up and got me a carton of Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

"I've chewed it ever since," he added with a laugh.

It cost him only 3 cents a pack back in the 1940s.

Headley was drafted into the Navy in March 1943. He served until December 1945.

After nine weeks in boot camp, he and K.O. Ellison, who was from Kansas and later became one of Virgil's son's namesake, spent eight weeks with the Seaman Guard in Great Lakes, Illinois. He then went to California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.

Headley logged 14 months on the USS Yorktown.

He was part of 20 different attacks during the war. He received the Presidential Unit Citation along with eight bars/medals and eight stars. Several men died around him, many of whom were buried at sea.

While grueling at times, serving in the Navy wasn't exactly difficult for Headley.

"To me, it was an easy job, but there was a lot of griping," he said with a grin.

Raised in the mountains of Lincoln County, West Virginia, Headley grew up on a hillside farm. By the time he turned 14, he was on the side of that hill plowing away. His dad worked as a mail carrier three days a week. Virgil joined his father on the Saturday prior to his 16th birthday, delivering mail on a mule.

As a 16-year-old, Headley cut 12 acres of corn, raised tobacco, dug potatoes (sweet, too) and assisted his father on an acre of sugarcane, which they used to make molasses.

Headley's education lasted through eighth grade. From first through sixth, he was in a one-room school containing 48 children.

"One teacher took care of all of them classes and everything," he said.

When he and his brothers did get into a bit of trouble, the discipline wouldn't stop at school.

"Mother usually would give us a whipping when we got home," he said with a laugh.

Headley had a slew of various jobs post-Navy. Among the workplaces in 1950 and '51: Chrysler in Detroit, a steel mill in Ashtabula, Ohio, Heinz Ketchup in Canton, Ohio, and a steel mill in Fremont, Ohio.

He worked in timber, for a contractor, and for the Foundry in Huntington until it shut down.

Headley moved to Kentucky — in the Naples area of Boyd County — in February 1959 and worked on a farm.

He ended up working for Southern States on Greenup Avenue for 20 years until retiring at age 63 (and eight months, to be exact). He was making $5.53 an hour. After that, he farm-raised tobacco.

When not in Kentucky, he and/or his wife could be found in Kenansville, Florida, where Virgil bought a trailer in 1988.

"We'd stay there in the wintertime," he said.

Headley's never truly had hobbies, per se, but he is fond of reading. Now, he does so by utilizing audiobooks. He also likes Western shows and movies. While not much of a sports fan, Headley does watch professional wrestling four times a week.

"It's just something I got to watching and I just stayed with it," he said.

Baptized in icy conditions in a creek in January 1956, Headley said faith is important to him.

"Back then, winter didn't have no effect on people," he said.

Throughout the years, he's rarely encountered health issues. Kidney stones and a broken ankle were a couple ailments he had to deal with.

But in 2013, he experienced a serious health scare.

"A kidney infection got so bad, they took him to the ICU and he was septic," Kirk recalled. Headley also had an abdominal aneurysm, doctors discovered.

He's had several cancerous spots removed from his skin, too.

Granddaughter Amy will frequently conduct a health check only to get a humorous response.

"Papaw, how you feeling?" she'll ask.

"And, what's his answer?" Russell said, cracking a smile. "'With my fingers,' he'll say."

Russell calls Headley her "hero."

"It's the best blessing I could ever ask for, having him still around," she said. "... He's the most easygoing person. His demeanor never changes, tone never changes."

Russell, Kirk and others made sure to celebrate Headley and let him know how much he is cherished over the past couple of weeks.

Between yard cards, a birthday party at church and a celebration at the VA, Headley has had enough recognition for a while.

"He doesn't like being the center of attention," Russell said, "but I could sit and talk about him all day long."

(606) 326-2664 — asnyder@dailyindependent.com