WWII vet celebrates his 100th birthday

Centenarian said he has worked ‘to get justice for all.’

WWII veteran Glendell Bennett.

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY — If he could change one thing about the world, Glendell Bennett said, “I would change the way people treat each other. I’d make them love one another and enjoy one another. That’s what I would do.”

In his 100 years, Bennett has seen some of the worst people can do to each other in the forms of oppression, segregation and discrimination, but he has, in his words, worked to try “to get justice for all.”

Bennett, a World War II veteran who worked alongside civil rights leaders in Chicago after the war, celebrated his 100th birthday recently with a party.

“His experiences during the war shaped his worldview and instilled in him a deep sense of duty and dedication,” his family wrote in a news release marking the occasion. “His early experiences with discrimination fueled his determination to fight for equality and justice.”

Bennett was father to nine children and three stepchildren. He has outlived four wives and several of his children.

“I love all my children,” he said. “God’s been good to me.”

Bennett has lived in Lexington since 2012, when he moved there to live with his daughter Glenda Bennett Mulder after his wife died. Daughter Diane Minnifield, a Fayette Circuit Court judge, also lives in Lexington, as do his daughter Kimberly Bennett and son Brian Bennett.

Well into his 90s, Bennett still was driving and working at the Gainesway Community Center as part of the Kentucky Senior Community Service Employment Program and greeting patrons at the Goodwill Industries store on Leestown Road.

Minnifield said each year when his birthday rolled around, they’d usually go out to dinner.

“I kept saying, ‘You make it to 100, Daddy, and we’re having a party,’” she said. And so they did. Bennett clearly was relishing being surrounded by his family, who had come from all over the country to celebrate with him.

He pointed out a granddaughter who lives in New York.

“I’ve got them from New York to California,” he said of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Bennett said he didn’t have any tips on longevity. He attributed his long life to the fact that “the good Lord wasn’t ready for me yet.”

Bennett’s cousin, Jacqueline Williams, said he’s always been a “loving, giving” person.

“He helped my mama feed us many times,” she said.

Williams came from California to be a part of the celebration.

“I don’t have many cousins that get to be 100,” she said. “He’s a good man.”

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