Only one WW I veteran left alive in the United States
Today is a deeply sad day, as Harry Richard Landis — one of the only two remaining US World War I veterans — has passed away.
Mr. Landis stayed healthy his whole life. Until his recent illness, eye drops were his only medicine. He just needed help buttoning his shirts.
Caring for his wife, Eleanor Landis, sustained him.
When he met her in the 1970s, both were widowed. They were married for more than 30 years. Eleanor, now 100, suffers from dementia.
Every day, they ate meals together. Mr. Landis loved to hold his wife’s hand. He would fetch her glasses or her blanket when she was chilly.
When he thought she needed to walk, he would let her caretakers know. And every night in bed, he’d give her a massage, even though his own hands hurt from arthritis.
“You couldn’t ask for any better,” Mrs. Landis said Wednesday. To remember him, she looks at a picture in her kitchen of her and Mr. Landis in front of a Christmas tree.
Mr. Landis was a great storyteller and loved to entertain his friends and caretakers. He was low key, said Riley, 32. But if he liked you, he’d open up.
Mr. Harry Landis turned 108-years old on December 12. At that time, there were still three remaining WWI Veterans. But 10 days later, J Russell Coffey died at the age of 109.
With the passing of Harry Landis, only Frank Buckles —who celebrated his 107th birthday on Feb 1, 2008 — remains of the millions of men who fought in that war.
It is believed that about 20 million military personnel and civilians perished in WW I. About 4.7-million Americans served during World War I. And now only one of them is left.
Richard Rubin at the NY Times does a great job of reminding us why it’s important to take note of each one of these men’s passing:
It’s hard for anyone, I imagine, to say for certain what it is that we will lose when Frank Buckles dies. It’s not that World War I will then become history; it’s been history for a long time now. But it will become a different kind of history, the kind we can’t quite touch anymore, the kind that will, from that point on, always be just beyond our grasp somehow. We can’t stop that from happening. But we should, at least, take notice of it.
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The last time all known U.S. veterans of a war died was Sept. 10, 1992, when Spanish-American War veteran Nathan E. Cook passed away at age 106.
Rest in Peace, soldier.
Left by John Jarzemsky on February 7th, 2008 at 2:22 pm