[ad_1] Annie Neville and Gov. Mark Gordon.
After a visit from Gov. Mark Gordon, two birthday cakes emblazoned with her photos, multiple celebrations, gifts and decorations, Annie Neville, who turned 100, attributed her long life to two things: the Marine Corps and golf!
I really think that’s why I’m 100 years old, Neville said.
“I played golf since I was 12 And I spent so many years in the Navy.”
If you know Neville, it’s hard to forget that she was a sailor.
It was incorporated in February 1943, five years before the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act was signed into law, allowing women to serve in all four branches of the military and allowing women to serve in official duties
When she was little, her next-door neighbor was a major in the Marine Corps, and his son was her age. From then on, he said, there was only one branch of the armed forces, as far as he was concerned. “He would pick us both up and put us in the back of the car and drive us to Quantico (a Marine base in Virginia)”
Neville said. “He would leave us in the mess tent and in those days it was a tent and those Marines would spoil us, of course, and he minded his own business and came to get us.”
When she came of age, she joined the Marines, much to her father’s chagrin, she said. Her first assignment was as a recruiting sergeant at the T Street recruiting office in Washington. She didn’t get a uniform until she attended boot camp at Hunter College in New York. After a hit-and-run with moths, the only part of her uniform that is still intact is her cap.
A scrapbook contains numerous memorabilia and memorabilia from her time in the Marines. There are newspaper clippings and photos from her time as a recruiter in various parts of the country, including Virginia, Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, as well as documents and honors and awards. Neville’s ultimate goal was to become a pilot, but at the time, women were not allowed to hold such positions.
She ended up attending aviation materiel school, where she earned her diploma and learned to help build and fix airplanes.
They said, ‘I don’t know why they sent you here. We’ve never had a woman as an officer”, said Neville.
The male marines didn’t think we were needed. But I’ve always gotten along, I’m glad to say, with officers and enlisted men alike.
During her time in the Marines, she was also in charge of an art fair that displayed graphic portraits of Americans at war.
She met her husband, Colonel Robert Neville, in the Marine Corps, and had a daughter, Breen Buff, who now lives in Buffalo.
The family lived in numerous cities on numerous military bases around the world, including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Madrid, Spain. Neville lived in Arlington, Virginia, after her husband’s death in 2001, until shortly after terrorist planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on 9/11.
That day she was sitting at her daughter’s house in Saratoga, where she had been visiting for a few weeks, when a relative called and told them to turn on the television.
Neville was due back in Washington the next day. Instead, her daughter insisted she move to Wyoming. She sold her home in Arlington, and the rest is history.
She lived in Saratoga near her family and then moved to Buffalo when they retired. At Saratoga, Neville was able to continue to foster her love of golf.
She learned to play golf with her father when she was 12, and played until she was 85, when she had to choose between a hip replacement and playing golf.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ve had a good golf career'”.
Today, she tries to stay active, attending exercise classes at Agape Manor. She often receives visitors, including her daughter and son-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandson, as well as her pastor at Summit Church, William Dunlap.
While Neville is grateful for the care and attention she is receiving for her 100th birthday, she tries to avoid the spotlight.
Instead, she smiles and gets excited talking about her daughter who embraces her life as a “sailor brat,” who moves every few years and lives all over the world, or her husband who was eventually named executive vice president of the National Association of Restaurants. where he spent a lot of time dealing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Still, fanfare aside, meeting Gordon, who issued a proclamation congratulating her on her 100th birthday, was exciting, especially since she was born and raised in Washington, where there is no governor.
“Everyone has been so wonderful,” Neville said. “But, 100 nowadays, I don’t know if a lot of people get it or not.”
Perhaps Neville’s positive, get on with it outlook might have been a contributing factor to her longevity. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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