Who's the Oldest? - Mountain View Historical Association

In search for ‘oldest living resident,’ Mountain View Historical Association bestows honor to WWII veteran

104-year old credits long life to survival genes, mixed in with a bit of luck

by Emily Margaretten

Photo caption: A taped over ‘happy birthday’ sign covers the kitchen table in Lloyd Lettis’ Mountain View home on Oct.11, 2024. Lettis’ daughter, Suzanne Epstein, says it’s hard to find decorations with anything over 100 onit, so every year they tape over the one they already have. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.

It has become something of a yearly tradition for Suzanne Epstein to modify her father’s birthday banner ahead of their family celebrations. “After 100, it becomes really hard to find banners,” Epstein laughed, showing her handiwork of taping over the last digit to reflect her father’s true age.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, Lloyd Lettis turned 104-years old in the Mountain View home that he bought for just under $13,000 in 1952. Lettis still jokes that he thinks he paid too much for it.

Lettis also holds the honor of winning the Mountain View Historical Association’s “oldest living resident” competition. The competition received entries from a couple other centenarians, but Lettis was the oldest, according to Carol Donahue, a historical association board member.

Still, Lettis is quick to point out that he probably should be considered as a runner-up to the oldest living resident in Mountain View. His good friend, Elzene Yancey, likely holds this distinction since she is nine months older than him but did not enter the competition.

In search for ‘oldest living resident,’ Mountain View Historical Association bestows honor to WWII veteran – Mountain View Voice

Born in 1920, Lettis attributes his long life to a combination of luck and perseverance, something he says he inherited from his parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Croatia around the turn of the century. “I think we have what they call ‘survival gene,’ so we just survived,” Lettis said.

Lettis’ father and mother met in Watsonville, an agricultural town that had a large Croatian population. Both came to the U.S. under fairly modest circumstances but managed to gain a foothold in the apple orchards. Lettis’ father worked his way up from an apple packer to a landowner, acquiring multiple orchards of his own, Epstein said.

As a young child, Lettis worked hard in the orchards helping his father and brothers. They were comparatively well-off – at that time, people looking for work would come to their house, asking for jobs in the orchard fields. Even if there was nothing available, his mother would always give the person a cup of coffee, Epstein said.

The family’s fortunes changed a few years into the Great Depression. Lettis’ father had taken out loans, expecting to pay them back after the apple harvest. But then a shipyard strike prevented the apples from making it to market. Creditors called in their loans and the orchards fell like dominos, Lettis said, referring to the foreclosures. They were left with just one orchard, a 52-acre plot of land that is still in the family today.

World War II

Lettis put in long hours working in the orchards, but he was also a good student. Lettis attended U.C. Berkeley with aspirations to become a lawyer. His plans changed however when the U.S. entered World War II. Lettis enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces his senior year and was called up for training about a year later.

It was also at U.C. Berkeley where Lettis met his wife, Myrtle. He saw her at a college dance and cut in as a partner, only to admit that he didn’t like dancing and asked if she would be willing to see a movie instead. Myrtle wanted to see “Gone with the Wind,” which cost 40 cents a ticket. But Lettis only had 50 cents in his pocket, so they each paid their own way and had nickel Cokes afterwards. “The first date was such a fiasco. I thought I’d never see her again,” Lettis said.

That was not the case, and they married exactly two years later on Feb. 2, 1943. A few days later, Lettis received a telegram from the U.S. Army Air Forces ordering him to report to basic training in Florida.

The army told Lettis that it would provide for all his needs; however, it did not give him the fare to get to Florida. So, with a bit of luck and a lot of determination, Lettis boarded several trains using his telegram as a ticket while also relying on the goodwill of porters who hid him in the bathrooms, he said.

After Florida, the army sent Lettis to Yale University and then Harvard University to take courses in radar technology. The training eventually led to his career as an engineer, far from his initial aspirations to become a lawyer.

Living in Mountain View

When World War II ended, Lettis returned to Watsonville for a few years to work in the apple orchards while also raising a young family with his wife. He resigned his commission from the U.S. Army Air Forces during the Korean War, not wanting to leave his family. As part of the deal though, Lettis agreed to take a defense job in the Bay Area.

His family ended up settling in Mountain View in 1952, in a home that Lettis negotiated down from $13,000. At the time, it was surrounded by apricot orchards, and Lettis quickly distinguished himself as one of the fastest apricot pickers in the neighborhood, filling two buckets to everyone else’s one, he said.

Lettis and his wife were embraced by the Mountain View community and in turn, they took a very active part in civic life. Lettis was a Boy Scout leader and also involved in the Parent Teacher Association as well as local clubs and speaker series, along with his wife.

When his father died in 1968, Lettis took over the apple orchard in Watsonville, commuting long hours and working in the fields to keep it going. His active lifestyle continues to this day, as Lettis still tends to a vegetable garden in his backyard.

Lettis only recently stopped playing tennis and driving at the age of 102, although his license is still valid, according to Epstein. He plays bridge twice a week and enjoys attending speaker series. He also is remarkably healthy, Epstein said, noting that her father’s medication list is quite short – he takes one aspirin daily.

Lettis says the hardest part of getting old is outliving his wife and friends. Still, he is surrounded by a big family that consists of four children, 11 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.

When asked how he felt about turning 104 years old, Lettis smiled and then added, “I don’t have any feeling about it… I just keep living.”