UPDATE Feb. 24, 2019: Just two days after his 104th birthday, Claude Ogle Sr. has passed away. As his son Ken told me, “He was determined to make it to his birthday on Friday, and fittingly enough, he left for his wonderful reunion on a Sunday.” Here is the obituary.
ORIGINAL STORY FROM 2015:
I should have seen it coming. When Ken Ogle invited me to interview his almost-100-year-old dad, Claude Ogle Sr., I asked him, “So is he still pretty sharp?” Ken said, “Oh yeah. You’d better be ready for him. He may be turning 100, but he’s as quick as ever.” So off to Cleveland I went, with a photographer and my list of questions. We got to the entrance of his apartment building, and this sprightly fellow with a big smile and a bounce in his step lets us in. “Good morning,” I said. “I’m here to see Mr. Ogle, the 100-year-old man.” I’m looking over his shoulder, trying to spot some elderly guy in a wheelchair, or maybe with a walker. “You’re looking right at him!” the man said. He offered to help carry the camera and tripod we were lugging in. I almost took him up on it.
Claude Ogle Sr. on his 100th birthday, Feb. 22, 2015
As we sat to do the interview, I was ready with question number one. I thought I already knew the answer, since Claude’s son Ken had given me his life story. “Have you lived your whole life here in Cleveland?” I asked. “No sir,” Claude said, pausing just long enough to make me wonder. “Not yet, I haven’t!” he continued, letting out a big laugh. “I’m not through living here yet!” This was only the beginning.
For the next hour, Claude Ogle Sr. recited the poetry he had written, sang the songs he had written, and told the stories and jokes he had accumulated from a century of living (so far) in Cleveland, Tennessee. He sat down at the piano near the lobby and started playing and singing, as a steady flow of senior citizens filed in to be his audience (“I like to entertain the older folks,” said the oldest guy in the 104-unit apartment building.) Claude taught himself to play various instruments, including the guitar and banjo in his teens. “Me and God just worked it out,” he said. These days, he sticks mostly to the piano.
Claude is the youngest, and only surviving member of a large, church-going family. Two of his three brothers lived to be 96, and the other died in his eighties. (He also had five sisters.) Starting his work career as a sixteen-year-old, Claude toiled for several years in a furniture factory, before starting a 33-year career with the Church of God Publishing Company. At the age of 67, he began a 33-year retirement career. So far.
He has two sons, and one grandchild, Kyle, who you see smiling in the photo below, taken at his 100th birthday celebration last month. His wife of 61 years (Viola) died twelve years ago, and although he doesn’t have a girlfriend, he professes to have “sixteen lady friends.” He pauses to think for a moment, spots a woman nearby, and says, “I forgot about her. Better make that seventeen.” To the surprise of many, he still drives. “I get me a biscuit at Hardee’s in the morning, and a hamburger at Wendy’s in the afternoon,” he said proudly. “I won’t say that’s the recipe for a long life, but it sure hasn’t hurt me!”
Stout and barrel-chested, he mostly shuns exercise. “I’m strong enough already,” he laughs. Blessed with a razor-sharp memory, he can recite just about every song in the church hymnal. He’s also an avid storyteller, recalling life’s events dating back almost to his birth in 1915, when Woodrow Wilson was president.
Kyle Ogle, and granddad Claude Ogle Sr. on his 100th birthday, Feb. 22, 2015
On a more serious note, he was quick to proclaim his faith, and love for his church, South Cleveland Church of God. He was invited to sing in front of the congregation on his 100th birthday, and he didn’t disappoint, with his clear, steady voice. He refuses “to sit around and do nothing.” He adds, “Too many old folks do that, but I’ve got to keep moving.” He says music helps keep him young, and he looks forward to his time behind the piano and microphone.
“Some of these people need cheering up,” he said, “and I’m just the man to do it.”
How fabulous is this! What a heartwarming story. What a blessing this “young” man must be to his family and his church.
This is my Uncle Claude and he is fabulous. We grew up with him always having a story and always wanting you to play checkers. If there was nothing going on, he would get up with his little dog and walk down to the center and sit on a bench and talk to everyone who came by. I think his little dog was his attention getter. LOL We love you Uncle Claude