Celebrating 100

A familiar face at Jay County High School basketball games just passed a milestone.

Herb Heston, a rural Redkey native, turned triple digits Tuesday.

“Never ever really thought about it,” said Herb of becoming a centenarian. “Here I am.”

At 100 years old, Herb Heston enjoys going to watch local sports. He and his son, Randy Heston, and other family regularly attend Jay County girls and boys basketball games together. They also made an appearance at some baseball games over the summer.

“I played a lot of sports when I was in high school, and he would work all day and come home and try to go to the ball games I had different places,” recalled Randy. “He always did that, when we were kids and all, he always went and supported us.”

Herb graduated more than eight decades ago from Gov. I.P. Gray School of New Mount Pleasant in Jefferson Township. He married his late wife, Frances, in 1945 before traveling to Germany for World War II. He served as a mechanic and tank driver under Gen. George Patton for about two years, hauling wrecked vehicles and tanks into the military motor pool.

After the war, Herb returned home and joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. (He’s celebrating 75 years in the union this year.) He worked in construction as a carpenter most of his life, with some of his notable work including buildings at Ball State University in Muncie. He retired from Hagerman Construction of Fort Wayne at 62 years old.

Randy, who also chose to go into the carpentry business, recalled working on a few construction jobs under his father.

“I would get the crazy jobs or the rough ones, but that was OK,” he teased, noting Herb was known for being a good man to work for.

“He was always a good father, he would not give you something to do if he wasn’t willing to do it himself or have done it before, (he is) that kind of guy,” added Randy. 

Herb has been a member of local chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He served as commander of the Redkey post for many years.

He also helped farmers over the years, explained daughter Luann Fugiett. A picture of his Ford tractor is displayed prominently in his room at The Waters of Dunkirk.

Herb and Frances Heston had five children — three are deceased — and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Randy, 77, and Luann, 69, joined their father for his birthday festivities this week.

Herb moved into The Waters about three years ago. The nursing home hosted a birthday celebration for him on Tuesday afternoon, marking the fourth party he attended for his 100th birthday. Other celebrations included festivities put on recently by Hickory Grove Church, a family gathering Sunday at the Redkey park cabin and a party Tuesday morning at Ridgeville American Legion Post 507. 

“He’s so sleepy,” said Luann on Tuesday afternoon.

Nowadays, Herb enjoys going to events with family and friends, including local sports at Jay County Junior-Senior High School and horse pulls at Jay County Fairgrounds. He’s also a fan of jigsaw and sudoku puzzles. 

Family and friends are important to Herb. There isn’t a bare space on the wall in his room, which is covered by cork boards filled with dozens of photos of his wife, children, grandchildren, friends and others dear to him.

“This is his life,” Luann said.

Randy referenced the similarities between himself and his father, pointing to their shared military background — Randy served in the Vietnam War from 1966 to ’69 — and career path as well as the fact they both graduated from the same high school. He recalled their last class reunion, noting his father was the oldest graduate and Randy was the youngest graduate.

“I’m really proud of him for going this long,” said Randy. “He’s done well — I always look up to him. Even though I’m quite a bit taller than he is now, I still look up to him.”