State Has 145 Retired Employees Over 100!
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Talk about a budget buster:
Florida has 145 retirees are over the age of 100!
That means some of these former government employees may have been working when Fuller Warren was governor (1949-53) and Claude Pepper was the U. S. Senator (1936-1950). Or before.
According to the Florida Retirement System, the oldest benefit recipient is 108 years old and retired in 1965!
This retiree could have been working when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president.
Of the total over the age of 100, 110 are Florida residents. One lives outside the United States—in Germany.
The rest are scattered throughout the country.
All I can say is Florida must be good for your health.
September 18th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Wonder if they are all enjoying the “community life” of The Villages…
September 18th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Hmmmmm, I wonder if any of those retirees have already assumed room temperature and their heirs are cashing the checks.
Not to pick nits but Red Pepper also served as a US Rep from ’63 to ’89.
FROM BUDDY:
Sure he served as a U. S. Rep. I covered him in Miami and covered the campaign to replace him when he died.
But before the U. S. House, Pepper served in the U. S. Senate from 1936 to 1951. He lost the 1950 election to George Smathers, who was heavily supported by the du Pont money (FEC Railway, St. John’s Paper, etc.).
It was in that race that Pepper nickname “Red” Pepper got widespread use. It was used to highlight for his policies favoring the New Deal of FDR and then aligning himself with the left-wing campaign of Henry Wallace in 1948.
Interestingly enough, the term was first used by The New York Mirror (a Hearst tabloid) in 1946, four years before the campaign.
Two informative books I read about this campaign are “Red Pepper and Gorgeous George” by James C. Clark and “Claude Pepper & Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose and Power” by Tracy E. Danese, both from the University Press of Florida.
September 19th, 2012 at 8:19 am
They should all be checked for eligibility to vote. And possibly for an active pulse. I think they’re suspect…and require special election rules to avoid fraud.
September 19th, 2012 at 10:50 am
buddy thereal question is how many are making over 100 thousand as retirees, the answer could be very interesting
FROM BUDDY:
Probably not many. The state salaries were notoriously low when these folks were working.
September 19th, 2012 at 10:56 am
Isn’t Red Pepper the one whose mother was a thesbian and brother matriculated in college? GREAT Campaign!!!
FROM BUDDY:
According to the book “Red Pepper and Gorgeous George”, Time Magazine reported that Smathers prepared a speech aimed at the state’s Cracker voters that said, “Are you aware that Claude Pepper is know all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celibacy.”
But “Time apparently reported the story with tongue in cheek. Time called the story a yarn.”
The book states, “There is no indication where the speech was given, but over the years it has grown and become a legend.” By 1987, copies of the supposed speech was ten times as long as the one quoted by Time during the election.
The book also says that there is evidence that the speech was cooked up by a Pepper aide during a drinking session at the National Press Club in Washington. It was suppose to be a joke on how to start a whispering campaign among Cracker voters because they were so dumb they could be fooled by big words. It got out of control.
Smathers offered $10,000 to anybody who could prove he gave the speech. Nobody ever claimed the money.
September 19th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
buddy, not those over a 100 years but over a 100 grand in benefits.
FROM BUDDY:
Ah, all retirees. I get it.