New centenarian

Farmer. Soldier. Deputy. County commissioner. Legionnaire. Husband. Father. Grandfather.

Today, Walt Rodgers adds another title — centenarian.

Born May 13, 1920, on the west side of Blackford County, Rodgers farmed in Richland Township most of his adult life. Now he’s a resident of Miller’s Merry Manor, just across county road 300 South from his farm.

“We were farmers,” he said in a recent interview. “Back then it was kind of a horse and buggy days … Milk a few cows and raise a few chickens.”

Growing up, he attended Pleasant Grove School, then it was on to high school in Matthews in Grant County.

“It was 5 miles to Hartford City, and I didn’t want to walk that 5 miles,” he recalled.

Farming in Blackford County with his brother and father, young Rodgers got his draft notice in World War II.

“I was in three years, six months and eight days,” said Rodgers. Thirty-three months of that service was overseas. “I never had a furlough from the time I got in until I got out.”

After the war, he returned to farming and married Margaret Vivian Glasscock, whom he had known in high school.

Then he spotted an advertisement for farmland north and east of Dunkirk.

“I was kind of interested in getting my own place then,” he said. “The barn was one of the best in the county.”

He and his wife bought what continues to be the Rodgers family farm in March 1956. It started with 120 acres, and 60 acres was added later.

It wasn’t too many years after moving to Jay County that he was approached about joining the sheriff’s office.

“For some ungodly reason, the sheriff (George Stultz) got ahold of a statement I’d made that I’d like to be a deputy.”

He served four years during an era when the sheriff and two deputies constituted the entire force.

In 1982, he was elected as a county commissioner, serving two four-year terms.

But away from the farm, his first love was the American Legion and its post in Dunkirk.

He joined the legion after getting out of the service and was Dunkirk post commander in the 1960s for at least two years.

“I was the one that started this color guard and drill team in Dunkirk. … We bought some new uniforms and got to parading all over the country. Wherever there was a parade we were usually there,” he said. “I led that for 40 years probably.”

Rodgers estimated the color guard marched in hundreds of local parades and served as an honor guard at funerals for between 300 and 400 veterans.

“I just took control,” he laughed. “We’re not going to be in a parade unless we were in step.”