Jan 12, 2024 By Mark Hofmann 5 min read

From his days as a Navy pilot in World War II to running a Uniontown flower shop, the centenarian Ernest “Jack” Flesher has lived quite a life.

“You name it, I’ve done it,” he said recently, reflecting after his 100th birthday on Jan. 6.

The youngest of nine children, Flesher delivered newspapers as a boy to contribute money to his family.

It was that newspaper delivery route in Uniontown that led him to his military career. During one his walks downtown to drop off papers, Flesher saw a sign that said “Fly With the Navy.”

“And I said, ‘That’s for me’,” he recalled.

That was in 1943, when Flesher started seeing his friend being drafted to serve in WWII. He enlisted in the Navy before his draft card came, with dreams of flying.

“It took almost a year of training to become a pilot,” said Flesher, who graduated as an ensign in December 1944.

He was assigned to the Naval Air Station Miami, acting as an aircraft carrier torpedo bomber pilot. The plane, a T.B.F. Avenger, carried either one 2,000-pound torpedo or four, 500-pound torpedoes.

He was later assigned to sea duty, seeking out German U-boats, before he was ordered to Sanford Maine Naval Air Station to prepare for the invasion of Japan.

Ultimately, the use of atomic bombs in Japan negated the need for Flesher and other U.S. pilots to take part in the invasion.

He said he served 16 years in the Navy, and later in the reserves, but never had to take part in combat.

However, his military career was not without danger.

“I’ve had a couple of crash landings,” Flesher said.

He once lost control of his plane during training, and saw he was headed toward a group of other planes that were taking off in formation.

“I closed my eyes and thought I was going to wipe them out, but I opened my eyes and they were gone,” Flesher said. “I don’t know how I missed them to this day.”

In another harrowing instance, Flesher was almost a casualty in another crash.

“I was on the deck of an aircraft carrier and a sailor assigned to me to help me get strapped in the plane, he grabbed me, took me to the side of the ship and threw me overboard,” Flesher said.

Both men were standing where the plane was about to crash.

And once, said Flesher, he had a close call when he took off in a plane from an aircraft carrier without fuel in the tank.

“As soon as I took off, the engine failed on me, and I was heading down toward the water,” he said.

He quickly switched to the secondary fuel tank. That thankfully transferred over fuel as he was skimming the ocean surface, and he was able to pull the plane up.

“The next day, my arms were sore,” he said.

Sore arms aside, Flesher never suffered any injuries, for which he is thankful.

But, it seemed, close calls would follow him in his life outside of the military.

Over the years, he recounted being resuscitated after being pulled from a lake, being present during a gasoline explosion, and fending off an intruder in his home.

“I’ve had my share of stuff in my lifetime,” he said.

But, not all of his experiences were hair raising.

At the end of Flesher’s active duty, he took some time to smell the roses, albeit not in the way some may think.

He joined his wife Geraldine’s father, Charles V. Yarris, in the retail flower trade at the former White Swan Flower Shop in Uniontown.

The couple’s son, Charles, joined the operation in 1974.

After Yarris’ death, the three ran the shop together. Geraldine died in 2012, and a year later, at age 89, Flesher closed the shop.

While he may have retired, Flesher stayed active, golfing until he was 96 – never using a cart, instead opting to walk the course.

“Maybe that’s why he’s still here at 100,” Charles Flesher said, adding that part of his father’s daily routine includes going to the Uniontown Mall where he grabs a shopping cart and walks the whole interior of the mall.

And when the weather is too bad, Jack Flesher takes to the halls of the Meridian Point Apartments in Uniontown, where he lives.

“He still drives,” Charles Flesher said. “He renewed his license a month ago at the age of 99, and he passed the eye test and everything.”

To celebrate Jack Flesher’s milestone birthday, his family threw a surprise birthday party for him at Meridian Point. Nearly 100 people stopped to extend well wishes.

Among them were former White Swan employees, friends and his family, including four children, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“It was quite a surprise. I enjoyed meeting people I haven’t seen in 20, 30, 40 or 50 years,” Flesher said.

Besides his walking regiment, Fisher credits his good health and longevity to eating honey on his Cream of Wheat every morning.

“They say you can take honey and open it up after a thousand years if you bottle it, and it’s still good,” Flesher said. “So I figure it ought to be good for me then.”