World’s oldest man marks 114th in Mont.

September 22, 2010|Associated Press

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana resident believed to be the world’s oldest man celebrated his 114th birthday yesterday at a retirement home in Great Falls.

Walter Breuning was born Sept. 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minn., and moved in 1918 to Montana, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years.

His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children.

Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world’s oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113.

Breuning was to give a speech at an invitation-only birthday party at the Rainbow Retirement Community in downtown Great Falls, where he lives, with a guest list that includes Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and representatives from Guinness World Records.

Gavin Seeberger recalled how his father, a former Great Falls banker, tried to persuade Breuning in the mid-1990s to purchase a two-year certificate of deposit instead of a five-year CD. Breuning had come into the bank to take advantage of a special rate on five-year CDs, and insisted he would be there to collect it in person at age 105 when it matured. And he did. .

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