TEMPLE, TX — World War II veteran Harold Ramm celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday and all he wanted was a few birthday cards. A few social media posts by family members and Texas agencies later, he had hundreds in his mailbox.
"That's a lot of damn cards. And I don't know that many people," Ramm said of just the handful he had seen.
Ramm met Texas land commissioner George P. Bush about five years ago during a veterans' trip to Washington D.C. That's how he ended up on the Texas General Land Office's Facebook page a few weeks ago.
A pile of cards covered a table at his birthday party, sent from all over the country.
His family said Ramm likes to keep things simple. His 100th birthday party was inside a Golden Corral with friends and family. They describe him as hardworking, sometimes hard-headed, and dedicated to serving others.
"He's lived a great life and has been such an asset to myself as well as to so many people," his son, also Harold Ramm, said.
If you ask him to describe himself, he'll keep it short.
"Hell, I'm just an old country boy!" he said.
Listening to his past, it seems like Ramm has lived a dozen different lives. He landed in Guadalcanal and worked his way north to through the Philippines during World War II. He's owned a burger shop, ran a gas station and been a farmer.
Ramm has told his family for years that he knew this birthday would come.
"He has told us for the last fifteen years that he was gonna make it to a hundred years old, so he's very proud to be here," said his grandson, Jason Ramm.
