Celebrating The Oldest Veteran Living In Olmsted County

He’s lived through two pandemics, the first being the Spanish Flu, and the Great Depression but Kenneth Hoffmeyer has also served in two wars – World War 2 as well as the Korean War. Tuesday afternoon, Hoffmeyer added another milestone to his growing list – turning 105.

Kenneth Hoffmeyer was born in 1915 in a small town north of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The town, Corunna, according to Archive.org, had three schools, two mills, a hotel as well as a bank in 1914. His son, Mark, said his father grew up very poor with no working electricity, heat or plumbing. It was the draft, Kenneth says, that got him out of poverty.

Not only did Hoffmeyer ring his 105th birthday, but he also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Representative Jim Hagedorn.