Tuskegee Airman Theodore Lumpkin dies at 100 in Calif.

Theodore “Ted” Lumpkin, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, died Dec. 26 from complications of COVID-19. He was 100.

Lumpkin, who was days short of his 101st birthday, died at a hospital in his native Los Angeles.

After studying for two years at Los Angeles City College, Lumpkin (photo) enrolled at UCLA. He was in his senior year in July 1942 when he was drafted, the Los Angeles Times said.

He was assigned to Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, where he trained with the nation’s first Black military pilots in the unit that helped desegregate the military.

Lumpkin’s eyesight wasn’t good enough to allow him to fly planes, so he became an intelligence officer, serving in Italy from February 1944 through VE Day. He was a member of the 100th Fighter Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group.

After the war, Lumpkin worked several jobs in the Los Angeles area, including as a social worker and a real estate broker. His family knew he served in the war, but he didn’t bother to mention that he was one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen.

“He didn’t talk about it much. He’d maybe mention some incident or a buddy, but we were married for a number of years until I heard about them,” his wife, Georgia, told the Times. “When I realized who these guys were and what they’d done, I was just overcome at how much they persevered.”

Lumpkin was often in touch with other members of the historic group, and served on the boards of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation. The Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007.

With Lumpkin’s death, only eight pilots and some support personnel — all in their 90s — survive, according to Rick Sinkfield of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

After retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel, Lumpkin worked as a social worker for Los Angeles County and later became a real estate agent.

He’s survived by his wife, three children and several grandchildren. His son Kelly said that until Lumpkin got sick recently, he was still active and had recently bought a new car.

“As tragic as it is with COVID taking him, he still won in the game of life,” Kelly Lumpkin told the Times. “He still got to do everything anybody should want to do.”