Buffalo centenarian credits longevity to her military service and playing golf

BUFFALO — After a visit from Gov. Mark Gordon, two birthday cakes adorned with her photos, multiple celebrations, gifts and decorations, Annie Neville, who turned 100 years old on Monday, attributed her long life to two things: the Marine Corps and golf.
"I really believe that's why I'm 100," Neville said. "Because I played golf from the time I was 12. And I think it's because I spent so many years in the Marine Corps.”
If you know Neville, it's hard to forget that she was a Marine.
She joined in February 1943, five years before the Women's Armed Services Integration Act was signed into law, allowing women to serve in all four branches of the military and permitting women to serve in official capacities.
When she was a child, her next door neighbor was a major in the Marine Corps, and his son was her age. From then on, she said, there was only one branch of the armed services, as far as she was concerned. “He used to take the two of us and dump us in the back of the car and take us to Quantico (a Marine base in Virginia),”
Neville said. "He would drop us off at the mess tent  and it was a tent in those days  and those Marines used to spoil us rotten, of course, and he went about his business and came and picked us up." 
When she came of age, she joined the Marines, much to her father's chagrin, she said. Her first assignment was as a recruiting sergeant at the recruiting office on T Street in Washington. She didn't get a uniform until she attended boot camp at Hunter College in New York. After a run in with moths, the only part of her uniform still intact today is the cap.
A scrapbook holds ample keepsakes and memorabilia from her time in the Marines. There are newspaper clippings and photos from her time as a recruiter in various parts of the country, including all over Virginia, Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, as well as documents and honors and awards. Neville's ultimate goal was to become a pilot, but, at the time, women weren't allowed to hold such positions. 
She ended up attending aviation materials school, where she earned her diploma and learned to help construct and fix airplanes. 
"They said, 'I don't know why they've sent you here. We've never had a woman as an officer,'" Neville said. "The male Marines didn't think we were necessary. But I always got along, I'm happy to say, with officers and enlisted alike." 
During her time in the Marines, she also was in charge of an art fair that showcased graphic portrayals of Americans at war. 
She also met her husband, Col. Robert Neville, in the Marines Corps, and had one daughter, Breen Buff, who lives in Buffalo. 
The family lived in numerous cities on numerous military bases around the world, including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and in Madrid, Spain. Neville lived in Arlington, Virginia, after her husband died, until 2001, not long after terrorist planes crashed into New York's twin towers and the Pentagon in Washington on 9/11. 
On that day, she was sitting in her daughter's home in Saratoga, where she was visiting for a few weeks, when a relative called and told them to turn on the television. 
Neville was supposed to fly back to Washington the next day. Instead, her daughter insisted she move to Wyoming. 
She sold her home in Arlington, and the rest is history. 
She lived in Saratoga near her family and then moved to Buffalo when they retired. 
In Saratoga, Neville was able to continue to foster her love for golf. She
learned to play with her father when she was 12 years old, and she played until she was 85, when she had to make a choice between a hip replacement and playing golf.
“I said, 'Well, I've had a good run on golf,'" she said.
Today, she tries to stay active, attending exercise classes at Agape Manor. She often receives visitors, including her daughter and son-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandson, as well as her pastor at Summit Church, William Dunlap. 
While Neville is grateful for the care and attention she's receiving for her 100th birthday, she tries to avoid the spotlight. 
Instead, she smiles and gets excited talking about her daughter embracing her life as a "Marine brat," moving every few years and living all over the world, or about her husband who eventually was named the executive vice president of the National Restaurant Association, where he spent a lot of time dealing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 
Still, fanfare aside, meeting Gordon, who issued a proclamation congratulating her on her 100th birthday, was exciting — especially because she was born and raised in Washington, where there is no governor. 
"Everybody has been very wonderful," Neville said. "But, 100 nowadays, I don't know if a whole lot of people make it or not."
 
This story was published on Oct. 20, 2022.