JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Tom Horn leads a busy life.
On a typical day, the born-and-raised Jeffersonville resident attends mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church, enjoys breakfast at a local diner with friends and then runs some errands or goes for a 30-minute ride on the exercise bike. He caps the day off with an hour of reading before bed at midnight.
“I like to do things,” he said. “I stay active.”
But what separates Horn from most other local folks is his age: in January, he celebrated his 102nd birthday.
“I’ve had good health, good friends, and I’ve always been a good church member,” Horn said. “And it seems like those three things keep you going.”
Born in 1912, Horn has seen the world and Jeffersonville change around him, witnessing both global and political changes and developments happening in his backyard.
Horn grew up on Clark Street in a family of nine, born right in the middle of five boys. He said most days were spent at the play square, which is now Colston Park, or playing down in the Ohio River - which looked nothing like it does today.
“You could go out to about the middle of the river, and it wouldn’t be over your head. It was all sandy,” he told the News and Tribune (https://bit.ly/LPSioV ).
Horn, who said he learned to swim in the Ohio, said he remembers floating on logs behind barges in the river, riding on the waves.
“All us kids, we were in the river all the time,” he said.
In 1931, Horn was a forward for the Jeffersonville High School basketball team at a time when the rules were different and games were low-scoring - the Red Devils beat New Albany High School 17-5.
“Every time you made a basket, you had to go back to the center and toss the ball up,” he said. Horn has held season tickets to Jeffersonville High basketball games for 50 years now and almost never misses a game.
Horn married his wife, Florence Jolly, in 1941.
“But nobody knew her name as Florence,” he said. “She was Jolly. All the time.”
However, his time with Jolly was cut short when he enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served as a field depot in World War II, supporting troops at the line with backup supplies in England and Normandy.
Four of the five brothers were in World War II at the same time, one in the Pacific and three in Normandy, though none knew where the others were.
“I seen a soldier walking down the road and he looked familiar, and I said, ’Hey, soldier, where are you going?’” he said. “And he said, ’How’s it to you?’ and I said, ’You happen to be my brother.’”
Horn finally returned home four years later - a period of time he never once saw his wife, though they wrote letters back and forth.
He returned to work at City Hall and soon was offered a position through Fort Knox for the Army Maintenance Board, a position that allowed him to travel all over the world to places including Hong Kong, Vietnam, Tokyo and Germany. Horn served that role for 12 years until he retired in 1970.
“When I traveled overseas, I always called my wife on Wednesday evenings to find out where I was going or where I was,” he said. “It was a real interesting job.”
Retiring didn’t halt Horn’s involvement in the community. Through the years, he was president of the board of directors at the Council of the Aging, was on the Jeffersonville Housing and Redevelopment and was Indiana president of the National Association for Retired Federal Employees.
“I’ve always been active in everything I’ve ever done,” he said.
Although Horn and his wife only had one child who died at birth, the couple still had the opportunity for parenthood.
“To show you how things work, the same time my niece, we were real close to, she was 4 years old, she lost her father,” he said. “So we took her over. And she is now what we consider our daughter.”
Horn said he visits his daughter, Jerri, who lives in Dallas, frequently. He continues to do so even after his wife died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2002.
Through the years, Horn has seen the city in which he grew up grow up along with him. The once-small city, banked by a shallower Ohio River, has transformed into an economic hub of activity.
“People don’t realize how much Jeffersonville has developed during the years,” he said. “The river’s the main thing here for Jeff and Kentucky. That’s the beginning of everything.”
Horn said he walks out to the river’s edge every day if weather permits just to watch the bridges form before his eyes.
“I’ve seen everything from nothing to where we are now,” he said. “You can’t imagine the changes that’s gone on.”
Though technology has come a long way in Horn’s 102 years, and his home - which he bought for $6,500 in 1941 - is still host to appliances from decades past, he said he does his best to adapt to new gadgets.
“All the new things, I try to invest into them,” said Horn, who has a cellphone but prefers his landline. “I read a lot about them. I keep pretty current.”
He said he’s seen some drastic changes in the world but always just took them in as they came.
“You hardly notice it. You’re going with it as it goes and it seems like normal,” he said. “You can look back and see what’s happened way back when up to now.”
Horn makes a point to stay active and busy, leaving his house on an almost daily basis. In fact, he just renewed his driver’s license.
“I’m good for three more years,” he said. “My daughter, she said you can’t keep me home.”
One of his friends, Jeffersonville resident and fellow parishioner at St. Augustine Judy Storz, said his attitude about life and growing old is an one to aspire to.
“I talk to him about living a long time and he said, ’Stay busy,’” Storz said. “And he’s always done that.”
She said Horn has been a behind-the-scenes man at church, always wanting to help those around him.
“He’s a very warm person,” she said. “He’s always interested in what’s going on, and he’s always trying to do something for someone.”
Storz said Horn takes every day as it comes, never dwelling on times bygone.
He never laments the way things used to be,” she said. “All the changes he’s seen … he’s been able to cope and adjust to it. It’s just marvelous.”
Horn’s wisdom about life and living over the years reflects just that:
“Just enjoy every day of life. That’s all you have to do,” he said. “Don’t worry about tomorrow - it’ll take care of itself.”
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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., https://www.newsandtribune.com
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