Russell A. Buchanan, World War I veteran, dies at age 106

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Russell A. Buchanan, one of the nation's last surviving World War I veterans, has died. He was 106.

The longtime Watertown resident suffered a stroke the day before Thanksgiving and died Wednesday at Mount Auburn Hospital, said Marge Schwendenman, executive director of Brigham House, an assisted-living facility in Watertown where Mr. Buchanan spent his last two years.

Mr. Buchanan served in the Navy in the final months of World War I and enlisted in the Army to serve in World War II when he was in his 40s.

He remained physically active in his old age by regularly walking at a local shopping mall well past his 100th birthday. He participated in a Veterans Day event at the Statehouse last month, Schwendenman said.

"Stand up for the U.S.A. and give all you can, even if it hurts," Mr. Buchanan said at a Veterans Day ceremony in 2001.

"He was the last of the gentlemen," Schwendenman said. "He always tipped his cap, always let ladies go first in the elevator. Everyone just loved Russell. We all have a tear in our eye today, but we're celebrating his life."

Mr. Buchanan at first tried to join the Marines but was turned down, he told The Boston Globe in a 2001 interview. He was allowed to join the Navy in 1918 only after gaining a few pounds to make the 118-pound minimum.

Between the wars, he worked as a pressman with Cambridge Paper Box Co. After joining the Army in 1940, he was sent to Europe.

Mr. Buchanan was born in Cambridge and lived in the same house in Watertown for more than 50 years. His wife, Maybelle, died in 1986. The couple had no children.

There are 14 confirmed World War I veterans still alive in the United States, said Terry Jemison of the federal Veterans Affairs Administration.

A service for Mr. Buchanan was scheduled for today at St. Peter Episcopal Church in Cambridge.