Dr. Philip Spence, a war hero and local dentist, celebrates his 100th birthday

Published 4:00 pm Friday, February 21, 2020

To what does Dr. Philip Spence attribute his longevity? 

Oatmeal. 

Spence, who turned 100 years old on Friday (Feb. 21), says he grew up like everybody else back then, eating grits, eggs and bacon for breakfast. 

“That was some good eating,” he said. 

But at a dental conference on nutrition, he said it seemed like every other word they were saying, “Lay off the animal fat.”

So he did. He switched to eating oatmeal for breakfast and has never looked back. He’s got the Kroger Old Fashioned Oats containers on his kitchen counter to prove it. The empty ones make good storage for odds and ends. 

“It’s easy to cook, too,” Spence said. “I went to work before my wife, so I could cook my own breakfast.” 

He said he didn’t really know if eating oatmeal helped him live to be 100. 

“But it’s the only thing I can think of that I consistently did,” he said, laughing. 

Good genes helped, too. His maternal grandmother lived to be “96 or 97. She picked cotton just like the field hands and also ran a boarding house.”

Spence was born in Blakely, Ga., in 1920. He was his family’s fourth son, and his mother had run out of boys’ names. So she asked the doctor who had delivered him about his name. Philip Hamilton, the doctor said. Thus, he became Philip Hamilton Spence. 

His mother wound up having nine children, six boys and three girls.

Spence and three of his brothers served in combat during World War II. Another brother was in training when the war ended. 

Spence was a co-pilot in an Army-Air Corps B-24 bomber group, based in Italy. The B-24 bombers, which were called the “Liberators,” played a big role in pounding German forces in Europe.

He flew 35 sorties in the war, some of them so long that he was credited with 50 missions. His plane was called Hell’s Bells. It had a devil mascot and a cluster of bells on its side. A bell was added after each mission. 

“I was trying to knock (shoot) a man off his gun that was firing at me. I couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see me (because of smoke, etc.),” he said. “It’s something you can never understand unless you do it yourself.”

All 10 members of Spence’s group survived.

After the war, Spence returned to a dentistry career in Blakely. He served on the Blakely city council and was instrumental in getting fluoride put in the city water, his daughter-in-law Robin Spence said. 

“You’ll be taking money right out of my pocket,” Robin recounted what Spence told his fellow council members. “And they voted to do it.”

The Spences moved to Milledgeville in the late ’60s, and he specialized in dentistry for the handicapped. He worked at Central State Hospital and the Youth Development Center. 

Terry Greene, Spence’s backyard neighbor, called him “a fine example of a Southern gentleman. And he’s very good at fixing things. We’ve had a lot of projects over the years, fixing lawmowers, cutting trees and gardening.”

Greene’s wife, Joy, said Spence always grows tomatoes.

The Greenes check on him every day or two. 

“He always says that if the kitchen light is on, he’s OK,” Joy said.

Spence and his late wife, Aurelia, had three children: Phil (Robin’s husband), Dave and Margaret. On Spence’s kitchen calendar, Robin has written on Feb. 21: “Someone special turns 100 today!”

His children, other relatives and neighbors like the Greenes will honor him with a 100th birthday party on Saturday. He’s the only male in his family who is living. Two of his three sisters are alive.

“We’ll see if anybody comes,” he said, smiling. 

His children won’t have much cleaning up to do. 

“He keeps his house spotless,” Robin said.

He’s also up to date on technology. “He’ll look at his cellphone and say, ‘That’s a robo call,’ ” Robin said.

Spence said he would never tell anyone what they needed to do for a longer life.

“I hope I’ve never done that,” he said. “There’s no particular routine or advice I could give to anyone else.”

But eating oatmeal for breakfast every day is not a bad place to start.