100-year-old Woman Veteran responds to VA PACT Act health care outreach letter

Now living in the Spokane Valley, Verona recalls her few years in the United States Marine Corps as having, “the best job” of working as a hostess at the NCO and Officer’s clubs on base at Cherry Point, NC.

80-years later, and we’ve learned if you want to reach Marine Verona Southern, you better get in line, because she’s busy!  “My secret has been staying physically active and always having something to do every day,” smiled the 100-year-old from Perry, OK.  Back then she says, “it was a lot of fun playing and working on her father’s ranch. Despite the difficult economic times, her father was incredibly generous to his own family, and all those working for him.

These days, Verona lives with more than two-dozen other Veterans (among many others) in a beautiful, assisted living facility in the Spokane Valley.  Her regimen includes swimming and aqua therapy at least three days a week. She still enjoys dancing with the help of her walker, and regularly plays Bridge and other games with friends. Verona is mentally sharp as ever, but a stroke forced her to learn to speak all over again, making it difficult to understand her.  Thankfully, she knows – and uses the universal language known to all – her smile. And, that’s where her daughter Bev typically steps in, often acting as her mother’s interpreter.  

Still, Verona has a lightweight pad to write on to help get her words and points across to others. The two sat down with Mann-Grandstaff VAMC’s James Deen, Chief of Community Development and Civic Engagement (CDCE), along with the facility public affairs officer, to discuss her recent mailer introducing her to VA’s outreach to promote VA health care and benefits to Veterans, especially those who may have had an environmental or first-hand exposure to toxic substances. Thankfully, that’s not the case for Verona, who’s lived through WW-II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the Global War on Terror among all other conflicts since her birth in August 12, 1923. She is also the mother of two.

She has traveled as far as Africa, China, and the Netherlands, and many of those memories remain fresh in her mind. She and Bev sat in the comfortable guest room of Verona’s living facility, recounting Verona’s upbringing and her 38-year career most in the Spokane area will likely know her by.  Verona earned Masters Degrees in both education and social work, including completing some of her studies at the University of British Columbia.  Her career spanned four decades after the Marine Corps in the mid 1940’s.  She taught school at Spokane’s Central Valley School District and she was the Director of Library Services for Spokane Community College.  She was known as a skilled debater and will let you know her opinions on politics if you ask her today.  

She credits her quest for knowledge to her dad and her upbringing. Her Father’s ranch in Oklahoma was sprawling enough to allow him to build a school and provide all of the care for the ranch-hands, their families and the children.  Still, having grown up and surviving the Great Depression as a child, while living in the “dust bowl” of the Midwest in Oklahoma, it’s no wonder this 100-year-old Marine continues to smile daily – no matter what obstacles come her way.

She’s a Veteran our entire country can be proud of.  And at 100, we can all learn from, too.  She works hard every day… at living.  Verona is as friendly as anyone, but also reserved and proud enough to know her own boundaries.  After all, she’s been pretty good at everything, and at 100 years, she’s been doing so longer than most.

For more information on why VA is doing all it can to ensure Veterans and their families understand the PACT Act, please go to www.va.gov/PACT to learn more.