Monessen man turns 102 with parade
By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com
Summit Avenue in Monessen was the hub of activity Monday evening as the Monessen Hilltop Volunteer Fire Department made a house call to wish happy birthday to Monessen resident and U.S. military veteran Scipio White.
Celebrating his 102nd birthday, White was joined by the VFD, family, friends and neighbors to help mark his special day.
“I can’t understand why,” White said humbly about being the center of attention prior to the VFD’s parade for him down Summit Avenue.
White was born in Georgetown, S.C., on July 27, 1918, when the price of a Model T automobile was $500, a dozen eggs cost 34 cents and a loaf of bread was 7 cents.
White and his family moved to Monessen in 1922 when he was 4 years old.
“The family moved up here to work in the mills,” he recalled.
White graduated from Monessen High School in 1937 and was employed by a local G.C. Murphy five-and-dime store.
In 1941, he was drafted by the Army to serve in World War II.
After completing officer training school, White was commissioned as a lieutenant and became one of the first African Americans to serve as a field officer during the war.
He served in the South Pacific until the war ended and returned home to Monessen, where he married his wife Frances, a Belle Vernon resident, in 1946.
“You know how kids are …we were just kids growing up, walking down the road and going to the stores,” White said of Frances, who passed away in 1986. “I thought she was beautiful. She was a pretty girl. I still miss her, too.”
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