Friday, September 20, 2024
Forever the aviator, World War II Air Force fighter pilot Charles Baldwin is now navigating the celestial skies — soaring through the clouds of heaven as he embarks on his eternal journey among the stars.
Baldwin, a cherished community icon and AVIVA Granbury resident, passed away Aug. 27 — just five months shy of his 103rd birthday.
Though he will be deeply missed, Baldwin’s extraordinary life was defined by courage, commitment and an unwavering zest for adventure.
BORN TO FLY
Born Jan. 27, 1922, in Clarendon, Baldwin grew up in Artesia, New Mexico before spending around 20 years — both active and reserve — in the Army Air Corps (before it was called Air Force).
As a fighter pilot, Baldwin flew P-47 Thunderbolts during World War II in Europe, serving in a total of 51 missions during his active duty.
In a previous interview with the HCN, Baldwin revealed that his best friend also desired to fly in the military, but ended up joining the National Guard instead, along with several of their high school classmates.
“It was kind of a thing to do back then, when you graduated high school,” he previously explained. “A lot of guys would join the National Guard in order to get a little extra income.”
Unfortunately, the National Guard unit from his town was sent to the Philippines, where they were captured and forced to participate in the Bataan Death March. The Bataan Death March forced between 60,0000 and 80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war to march through the Philippines along a 65-mile route.
“They sent them to the Philippines before the war ever started, so they were there when the shooting started,” Baldwin had said. “Of course, they were all either killed or captured.”
His best friend, Baldwin said, was “one of the lucky ones” who made it through the Japanese prison camp.
"After the war, he fortunately made it back and I was talking to him one day,” Baldwin had said, reminiscing. “I said, ‘Doug, you wanted to fly so bad. Did you ever wish you'd done that instead of joining the National Guard?’ After going through the hell of Japanese prison camps and all he had to tolerate over there, he said no. He said, ‘I'd do the same thing all over because this way, I made it back,’ and I thought, ‘What a wonderful philosophy for anything that comes up in our lives.’”
Following his time in active duty, Baldwin joined a clothing business with his father. They remained in business until the shop closed in 1964 and Baldwin moved to Lamesa with his high school sweetheart and wife, Peggy.
"My wife and I dated in high school,” Baldwin had explained. “She was a freshman, and I was a senior, and after I went off to college, well, that kind of cooled off, but the spark was still there. When I came back from service, we just picked up right where we left off — and the rest is history.”
They had three children together: Judy, Rick and Russ, and were married for almost 60 years until Peggy’s death in 2005.
“She was a wife in every sense of the word,” Baldwin previously told the HCN. “She was a wonderful woman. I give her credit for raising these kids, really.”
He wasn’t expecting to find a second chance at happiness, though.
SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE
“I wasn't looking for a mate or anything,” Baldwin had said. “We (Peggy and I) always talked about it, that if one of us passed away, we'd hope the other would find another mate. I wasn't looking. I was perfectly happy, but then I met this woman.”
He was attending a school reunion at Lamesa and was talking with a group of classmates, when someone mistakenly called a woman, Myrna, by the wrong last name, as her husband had since passed away.
She responded that she would answer to any name, to which Baldwin spontaneously replied, “What about Baldwin?”
“I didn't say it, but it came out of my mouth,” he had said, chuckling. “God said it. But she said, ‘That sounds like a pretty good name.’”
Baldwin’s daughter, Judy Brooks said her dad had told her about seeing Myrna at the reunion and that he described her as being a “cute little thing.”
“I said, ‘Well, dad, maybe you ought to go up to Lubbock and call her,’” Brooks said, reminiscing. “And he goes, ‘I’m afraid I might get something started if I do that.’”
Baldwin eventually listened to his daughter’s words of wisdom and asked Myrna out on a dinner date where they split a rack of baby back ribs.
“It was just so nice and wonderful, and it just fit,” Baldwin had said. “As much as I love Peggy — which I did love her so dearly — I never dreamed I could ever really be in love with anybody else. But it happened. God had a hand in that.”
Brooks said her dad lovingly cared for Myrna when her health started to decline until about a year ago, when she moved to Mineral Wells to be closer to her daughter.
“She needed a greater level of care, but my husband, Michael, continued to take dad to see Myrna,” she said. “He loved her. It was really sweet. Our families were both really grateful that they found each other.”
Brooks said Baldwin also loved to quote a poem that he felt described his relationship with Myrna perfectly:
“You can choose to dwell on loving memories lived
Or you can cling to sorrow and live a broken life.
You can cling to sorrow or you can learn to dance again.”
ADVENTURES ABOUND
Even as a centenarian, Baldwin proved that his spirit for adventure was far from finished.
In May 2023, Baldwin was able to attend a Texas Rangers baseball game, complete with a front row seat and a shout-out from the announcer.
"The announcer said, ‘We want to acknowledge Charles Baldwin,' so dad stood up and waved to all these people,” Brooks said. “I told dad then, I said, ‘I kind of see this as how it's going to be, not that I want you to hurry to heaven, but how it's going to be, where they announce your name and you stand up to the applause and music,’ and he said, ‘Well, yeah, they'll be like, I can't believe he made it!’”
But that’s not all.
In February, he received the birthday present of a lifetime when he got the opportunity to fly a plane again at the Vintage Flying Museum in Fort Worth.
“My first thought was, ‘Wow, let’s go!’” Baldwin previously told the HCN. “That (thought) was very appealing to me to say the least.”
The idea originated from Nicole Wells, AVIVA Granbury’s sales director, who made a post on social media asking for help in locating someone who could take Baldwin up in an airplane.
“His one bucket list item was to sky dive, so I am trying to meet him halfway,” Wells’ post had read.
Everything was quickly arranged, and the date was officially set, with Baldwin anxious to get up in the air again.
“The anticipation of it was exciting,” he had said. “I flew in private for several years, but I guess the last time I actually flew was about 25 years. It’s been quite a while.”
He said when he first arrived at the Vintage Flying Museum, his thoughts weren’t on flying the plane, but rather getting into it.
"It was not easy for me to just hop up on the wing and climb up in the cockpit,” he previously said. “We had a stepladder and guys helping me and I just thought, ‘Holy cow, I used to just jump in this thing with a parachute on!’”
To make the situation even more thrilling, Baldwin also had the opportunity to fly an AT-6 Texan — the same type of airplane that he trained in about 80 years ago.
"I had probably about 60 hours in that type of airplane in training,” he had said. “This was the last plane that you fly with an instructor in with you. From there, you go to a single-seat aircraft. But this is what you call an advanced trainer. It’s a good airplane. Very dependable aircraft.”
While the pilot took control of the plane for the majority of the flight, Baldwin was excited to take the lead for a short while.
"I didn't get to fly as much as I would’ve liked to, but I did get to fly some, and I found out I can still fly pretty well considering,” he previously said.
Baldwin called the entire experience “a thrill” and added that it was his “best birthday present.”
“I told my daughter, ‘I feel like I'm in a sideshow at a circus with people looking at me trying to get into the airplane. I think I ought to sell tickets,’” he had said, with a grin. “But we had a good time.”
JOURNEY TO THE PAST
Baldwin’s thrill for adventure didn’t stop there. It was only two months ago that he received the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Normandy, France for the anniversary of D-Day.
Honoring the courage and sacrifice of countless soldiers, American Airlines offered nearly 70 World War II veterans the chance to participate in the 80th anniversary celebration — and Baldwin was one of the lucky few chosen for this extraordinary experience.
"I hadn't thought about it that much until this trip, but someone came up with a statement to the effect that this invasion, D-Day, was the incident, so to speak, that saved the civilized world — and that's big,” Baldwin said. “Because had that failed, if we were alive, we'd be speaking German or Japanese. That was the turning point, and I never had really thought about it like that, but it surely was.”
While the D-Day experience was memorable itself for Baldwin, he also got the opportunity to meet two prominent celebrities.
Since his granddaughter, Angie, works for the Amblin film company in Los Angeles, Baldwin had the pleasure of meeting legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg — creator of films like “Jaws,” “E.T.” and “Schindler's List.”
"We were at a luncheon at one of the events and a big mob of people were surrounding Steve — I call him, Steve — and I waited until it cleared out,” Baldwin had previously told the HCN. “I approached him, and I said ‘Steve, my granddaughter works for your outfit. You better get me a screen test. I hadn't got it yet and I'm tired of waiting.’ He got a big laugh out of that and we chatted a while.”
Another unforgettable encounter came when Baldwin had the unique chance to meet President Joe Biden, being one of just eight out of 70 veterans selected for the honor.
“I got to meet the president and his wife,” he had said. “There were suits everywhere, Secret Service or whoever those guys are that travel with him. There were a bunch of them. They all look alike and dressed alike.”
As Baldwin recounted the week-long trip, he revealed that the highlight of his experience was the warm reception from the French. He said as veterans traveled by bus or in wheelchairs, they were greeted with gratitude and appreciation at every stop. Baldwin noted each veteran was accompanied by a member from the unit, including cadets from various military academies.
"Everywhere we’d go, there'd be people lined up and they were so glad to see us. They said, ‘Thank you. Thank you,’ and that impressed me more than anything about the whole trip,” he previously said. “The pictures and all that were great. The whole thing was just fabulous, but that was the one thing that impressed me more than anything is the sincere welcome and the sincere gratitude that was expressed.”
In just over a year, Baldwin enjoyed a front-row seat at a Texas Rangers game, took to the skies once more as a pilot, and got the opportunity to journey back to the shores of Normandy, France.
“It's just amazing what he would push himself to do,” Brooks said. “My brother, Rick summed it up: ‘He went out like a Roman candle!’”
A LIFE FULL OF LAUGHTER
Baldwin may have lived an exciting life, but he revealed in a previous interview with the HCN that exercise, luck and laughter are the three major secrets to living long — at least in his experience.
“You’ve go to laugh a lot,” he had said. “You can’t really live, in my opinion, unless you have a sense of humor. I think you have a lot of control over your longevity by the life you lead.”
His most important advice is for everyone not to take themselves too seriously, “because there’s a little clown in all of us,” — and that’s exactly how Baldwin lived.
Brooks recounted one particular instance when her dad was living at the Brookdale Senior Living Facility in Lubbock.
“One of the guys that I had contact with, his dad was also at Brookdale, and he went one day to see his dad, and they were having Hawaiian Day,” Brooks explained. “And he said, my dad, as they put it, sauntered in with zinc on his nose, Bermuda shorts, loafers and no shirt. That's the card he was.”
Speaking of cards, Baldwin was known for his immense love of games — but only ones that he could win, of course.
"He loved playing the Mexican train, but he always complained. He said, ‘They don't keep score. Why would you play a game if you don't keep score?’” Brooks said. “He was really competitive.”
THE LAST LAUGH
Brooks said one of her fondest rituals with her father was their daily Wordle game, where they always began with the word "stare." She said on the evening of his final day, while he was in hospice care, she reminded him to complete his Wordle.
"I went in there, and I'm like, ‘Dad, have you done your Wordle?’ He's lying there and he said ‘I didn't feel like it today,’ and I said, ‘Dad, you have got to do your Wordle today,’ because the word that day was ‘stake’ so I knew he needed to do his Wordle,” she said. “And that is the last conversation I had with him.”
Brooks said at first, she initially felt distressed, thinking that her final words to Baldwin were not a heartfelt tribute to his role as the best dad, but rather a casual reminder to complete his Wordle.
"But then I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘You know, he would think that's funny,’” she said, with a smile. “Like ‘My daughter, the slave driver. I am out of here. She cannot make me do the Wordle tomorrow. I'm out.’”
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
She explained that after his return from Normandy, Baldwin struggled to recover fully, as he had contracted COVID-19 following the trip. Brooks said despite being 102-and-a-half years old and dealing with significant kidney issues and COVID, her dad was initially resistant to further medical treatment.
The family began discussing hospice care, but felt they might be moving too soon, as Baldwin himself wasn’t ready to hand over his medical care. However, things took a turn when Baldwin started experiencing severe pain.
“I think he probably had a heart attack on Saturday, (Aug. 24), because he said he had the worst pain he had ever had,” Brooks explained. “On Sunday, we got pain meds for him and he's like, ‘I feel better than I felt in a coon’s age, but I'm just so tired.’”
On Monday, Aug. 26, as the family prepared to take Baldwin to a doctor, he was rushed to the ER as representatives from AVIVA had said that Baldwin couldn’t stay awake. Brooks said the doctors wanted to airlift him to a cardiologist in Fort Worth, but her father was adamant that he did not want to fly in a helicopter.
“They said he was dehydrated, and they did say he had a heart attack, but I'm still thinking, ‘It's not going to keep him down, a little heart attack,’” Brooks said.
She recounted how, during his time in the ER, Baldwin remained remarkably positive and encouraging to everyone around him, even those who might have felt like they were just doing routine tasks.
"One of the guys came in and said, ‘Well, I'm just the (phlebotomist) and my dad's like, ‘No, you're not just that. You are doing good work,’’’ Brooks said. “I mean, he's just so positive. He sees people genuinely. There’s nothing in it for him. He just sees people.”
Brooks said the ER doctor came in later and told her father that since he didn’t want surgery on his heart or kidneys, he wasn’t sure what else the medical team could do for him. As he was hard of hearing, Baldwin asked Brooks what the doctor had said. Given her father’s joking nature, Brooks decided to lighten the moment with a playful response.
"When my mom had a lot of health problems and the doctor had been in there, she was like, ‘What does this mean?’ He said, ‘Peg, you've got ticks and fleas,’ so when dad looked at me and said, ‘What did the doctor say?’ I said, ‘Dad, you've got ticks and fleas,’” Brooks said, with a chuckle.
She also recounted how when the doctors had started talking about administering morphine to lessen his pain, Baldwin joked, “Well, I want you to keep me comfortable. In fact, just give me something real strong and let me go.”
“They said, ‘Mr. Baldwin, this isn’t really the business we’re in, but we will pray for you,’” Brooks said, chuckling. “I mean, he was cracking jokes until the very end.”
HIGH FLIGHT
Brooks shared that the final words Baldwin heard before he passed away were his beloved poem, “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr. The poem was read to him by his 9-year-old great-granddaughter, Charley May. Also present at his bedside was her mother, Abigail (Abby) Reynolds.
The poem reads:
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ...
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
“He passed when they were reading that for him,” Brooks said, with tears in her eyes. “I was standing there and Abby said, ‘Mom, would you video this?’ My video says 12:59 and the time of death was 1:05.”
“Yesterday, I sat with my 102-year-old sweet Granddad as he passed on to what he referred to as ‘his last big adventure,’” Baldwin’s granddaughter Abby wrote in a tribute. “He is an absolute legend and is leaving a legacy of love like no other.”
Reynolds said her grandfather taught her several life lessons, including:
“This man had more adventures in his 102nd year than I did in the last decade,” Reynolds said. “He will be greatly missed although his presence will always remain. Charley May (named after her great-granddad of course) sat by his bedside with me and read this poem as he ‘put out his hand and touched the face of God.’ The most beautiful life … the most beautiful death.”
Brooks said she asked her dad a couple of weeks before his passing if he was afraid of dying — but his response filled her with a profound sense of peace.
“He said, ‘No, honey. I’m really excited and really curious about what it’s going to be like,’” Brooks said. “He said over and over, ‘I have had the most blessed life.’”
She said her father lived with simplicity, integrity and love for God, his family, friends and his country.
“He was an amazing man and he never could understand how people made a big deal about him,” Brooks said. “When he passed, it was amazing how it happened. He is a man of just squeaky clean integrity, and I loved that about him.”
As Baldwin takes to the skies above in his final, graceful ascent, his remarkable journey remains a testament to a life lived with courage, grace and a sense of humor that will always be remembered.
Fly high, Charles Baldwin.
