100 year old Comer Rudeseal poses for a picture with 1 year old Koen Caudell at Rudeseal’s birthday party on June 20, 2015.
It’s not every day that you attend your birthday party escorted by three police cars, a fire engine and a rescue vehicle. It’s also not every day that more than two hundred people attend your birthday party.
That’s the way it was, though, Saturday, for Calvin Comer Rudeseal of Mt. Airy. After all, it’s not every day you turn 100 years old.
The Family Life Center of Hazel Creek Baptist Church was the place the crowd of two-hundred-plus family members and friends gathered to celebrate Rudeseal’s birthday. A veteran of active service during World War II, Rudeseal received two American flags, both of which had been flown in honor of his birthday in prominent places. One flag, presented by the office of congressman Doug Collins, was accompanied by a document saying the flag had been flown on May 29, 2015, in Rudeseal’s honor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
The other flag, said Sen. John Wilkinson, had been flown “at Georgia’s State Capitol,” and it was accompanied by a commendation from Gov. Nathan Deal. Sen. Wilkinson said to the crowd, of Rudeseal, “we are in the presence of greatness today.”
Rudeseal also received a red, white and blue quilt, handmade and donated by the Quilt of Valor Foundation. The Foundation has awarded the quilts to veterans “to cover warriors” since 1940.
Rudeseal’s nephew, John Rudeseal of Habersham County, was Master of Ceremonies for the presentations during the birthday party. He said, of World War II veterans like Comer Rudeseal, “we don’t have many of them left.” He added that Comer Rudeseal had been “a member for 80 years” at Hazel Creek Baptist, which makes him the oldest member of the church, “and probably the oldest church member in the county.”
The last recognition of Comer Rudeseal came from a group of young people attending Camp Hawkins, a camp for the disabled located on property adjacent to Rudeseal’s in Mt. Airy. The camp’s director said “Mr. Rudeseal comes to every talent show” at Camp Hawkins and he has visited with the campers many times during summer sessions at the camp. “He loves our kids,” he said, and the camp will “put up a flag pole in his honor.”
When asked for his thoughts about the party, Rudeseal said, “It was a surprise. I knew there was something…I didn’t know it was that big!”
And his secret to being able to live for 100 years? “There ain’t nothin’ God can’t do,” he said. “I’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed.”
A Birthday Party 100 Years In The Making
