JOHN GEORGE PAINTER, CLAY COUNTY'S ONLY LIVING, TENNESSEE'S OLDEST LIVING, AND SECOND OLDEST KNOWN LIVING WORLD WAR I VETERAN IN THE UNITED STATES

By: Shirley Anderson
Compiled and written October 25, 1999

Mr. John George Painter, Tennessee's oldest known World War I Veteran and the second oldest known WWI Veteran in the United States, will be one of the feature participant's in the Macon County Veteran's Parade to be held November 11, 1999 beginning at 11:00 a.m. in Lafayette, Tennessee. The 111 year old Veteran will be escorted by Phillip Anderson in a 1928 T. Model, which will seem like a new vehicle to someone who drove a team of mules and wagon in the army.

A native of the Whitleyville Community of Jackson County, Mr. Painter was born September20, 1888, the son of the late Patrick Henry and Susan Genetta McCauley Painter. He was married to the late Gillie Watson, his childhood sweetheart, on January 8, 1920, who preceded him in death on November 7, 1989 and to this 69 year union was born two daughters. One of his daughters has preceded him in death this year.

Mr. Painter has been a blacksmith, a farmer, a member of the Hermitage Springs Church Of Christ, the VFW, the American Legion, Old Hickory Post 91, presented with a Tennessee Senate Joint Resolution honoring Tennessee World War I Veterans, accepted as a honorary member of The American Society of the French Legion of Honor, presented the National Order of the Legion of Honor (Chevalier), which is France's highest honor instituted in 1802 by then First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Initially, in France, honors such as this one, were given only to Officers, Catholics, men having twenty-eight years of military service, or outstanding heroic action. The award became politically motivated and only the aristocracy were given the award. Consul Napoleon Bonaparte wanted an award making eligible, not only the well-born man, but all soldiers and civilians who have rendered great services to their Country which might include men who could not even read. In April of 1999, JeanPaul Monchau, Consul General De France, presented the award to Mr. Painter at a ceremony in the Old Supreme Court Chambers of the State Capitol. The award was given to United Armed Force members who fought in a war on French Soil. By intervening alongside the French and other Allied troops, the United States was crucial to victory and had a decisive role when General John Pershing's troops re-took the Saint Mihiel Salient, in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and at Chateau-Thierry, where they helped save Paris. Only five other Tennessean's have received this prestigious Award.

After Mr. Painter's wife's death, he lived alone until 1990. He was 102 when he went to live with his daughter in Mt. Juliet. His daughter became disabled last year to the point that she could not care for him and he moved to Hermitage Springs in Clay County, Tennessee to live with his grandson, Dannie Green. Some of Mr. Painter's memories are as clear as a picture and others have faded away and his hearing is bad, however, he is still able to sit up, walk with assistance, chew his tobacco and hit his "spit can" that sets on the floor near his chair. He will tell people visiting him, "I'm not sure how old I am but I know I am going on 200."

Born when Grover Cleveland was in his first term as President of the United States and living to the term of the present President, "Bill" Clinton, Mr. Painter has lived to see 21 U.S. Presidents. He was a young man when Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson engaged in the first telephone conversation from New York to San Francisco on January 25, 1915. By the time Charles Lindbergh Flew The Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris in 1927, he had already fought for his Country during WWI. Eighty one years ago on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 was supposed to end the war of all wars. Since that time, Mr. Painter has seen World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War.

Mr. Painter enlisted in the U.S. Army on November 12, 1917 and served in France with Battery D, 115th Artillery from June 4, 1918 to March 27, 1919. By the time he was honorably discharged on April 12, 1919, he had witnessed fighting in the Argonne Forest in Northeast France, where one of the major American offenses of the war was fought in 1918. Mr. Calvin Potts, son-in-law to Mr. Painter, enjoyed many hours of learning the history of this war. Mr. Painter would tell him, "all of them was scared over there. The thing they were most scared of was the poison gas. A shell with mustard gas would drop in on them, and before they could get their gas masks on, some of them would die." Mr. Potts said, "If you ask him anything about that part of it, he won't tell you nothing. He wouldn't tell you much more about stuff like that." Having been a blacksmith and a farmer in his civilian life, he was a horse team driver during the war. He drove four horses that pulled an ammunition wagon to the front line. He entered the war as a private and left as a private. He has told his son-in-law, "If you're just a plain private, you don't have to worry about nobody but yourself so all I thought about was taking care of my horses and wagon."

Mr. John George Painter, is a true Legend and he is a reminder during this time of honoring our Veterans, of how we, all too often, forget the privilege of freedom.