When George Keller was a farm kid in St. Louis, he thought he was indestructible. His favorite trick was to lie on the ground and have horses jump right over him. He loved baseball, and one time he dove after a fly ball, landed on the hood of a car, rolled off the other side, and made the catch. He was a huge Cardinals fan, and he would take the streetcar up Grand Boulevard to Sportsman’s Park to watch them play. In the 1926 World Series, his favorite player, Rogers Hornsby, famously won Game 7 by tagging out Babe Ruth as he tried to steal second base. Keller was only 3 at the time. But his son later said that Keller remembered that moment, and at the end of his life could still name every Cardinal player on that team’s roster.
During Prohibition, when Keller was only 5, he would knock on the door of his aunt’s speakeasy, and say the password, “Butch, are you there?” Once inside, he would buy a cup of illegal bathtub gin for 50 cents. Prohibition ended soon after, but Keller would have to wait 65 more years to reach legal drinking age.
When he was 7, the United States was fighting in World War II; when was 10, the Oscar winner for Best Picture was From Here to Eternity; he was 15 when Nixon was impeached; he was 18 when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up.
Finally, in 1996, his celebrated his 21st birthday. His family joked that he and two of his grandchildren – who also turned 21 that year – enjoyed their first legal drink together.
He had 21 grandchildren in all, and a great-great-grandson who was born in 2011.
This past Wednesday, much of his extended family came to Columbia Rehab and Nursing Center in Columbia, Illinois, to celebrate his birthday. In a bittersweet twist, George Keller died, with them all by his side.
And so ended a life that perfectly defined longevity, and effortlessly defied the laws of mathematics. George Keller was born on February 29, 1912, and died exactly 100 years later, on February 29, 2012. At the ripe old age of 25.
