Saluting a Living Symbol of World War I

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.