At 17 years old, Richard Lindsay felt an impassioned call to serve the country. It was the early 1940s, he said. The plan to enlist involved him and a group of teens from Cortez, then characterized as a sprawling town.
Richard’s mother, Edna Lindsay, had her doubts.
She was reluctant to sign her son’s enlistment papers, but Richard said he told her he’d just get a neighbor woman to sign them, and Edna yielded.
Richard left to boot camp on the West Coast and into three years of service as a U.S. Navy landing craft pilot during World War II, serving from 1943 to 1945.
The teenager’s bold decision marked the beginning of a life full of service, hard work, community and family in Cortez. Richard’s mighty 100th birthday is on Friday. Now, his son, Kent Lindsay, recognizes his father’s century of life as a remarkable achievement.
“His strength is what keeps you going,” Kent said. “He was always there for us, and it didn’t matter if we were golfing or playing baseball or whatever.”
Kent said he holds endearing childhood memories with his father, who also taught him and his siblings to fish, hunt and the ways of business.
Vista Grande Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, where Richard lives, is throwing a birthday party Friday, featuring cake and a gathering of family, friends and others who live at the care center – all to celebrate the man who witnessed society evolve across a century.
He said there was a time when Cortez’s Main Street had very few cars. There were horse troughs on the side of garages for horses to get a drink.
“He will be the fourth 100-year-old in this building,” said Kim McDonnell, the Vista Grande Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center activities director. “Currently, there are three women, and he’ll be the first man here to be 100.”
During the war, his son Kent Lindsay said his father participated in major battles, including the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, where he faced intense kamikaze attacks and it’s suspected his ship might have taken a hit. His duties involved the grueling reality of dropping troops off at the beaches under fire and then transporting the sick, wounded and killed back to Navy hospital ships.
Montezuma Heritage Museum curated a section documenting the residents of Montezuma and Dolores counties who served in past wars. Archives on the community’s military service date back to the Spanish-American War.
Richard remembered spending time aboard the “mothership” and the tactical process of hauling troops from island to island, which involved loading soldiers from the large vessel to landing craft boats.
These smaller boats would drive out about a mile offshore, circle around, wait for flashing lights, and then carry the lined up troops to shore.
“You get sort of where it doesn't bother you as much,” Richard said about his wartime duties. “That’s what we did, and I learned a lot. I learned how to get in and get out, and I was real lucky.”
Following the war, Richard said he returned home to finish high school, married his wife, Ida Nelda Meistrell, and together they became well-known florists in the 1960s. The pair were married for 58 years, he said. His face radiated with warmth at the mention of his late wife.
Richard and Ida bought the floral shop Glenn’s Flower Shop from W. L. Glenn and renamed the business that eventually relocated to the brick-and-mortar location where it’s now known as The Flower Cottage at 30 N. Market St.
The business required immense dedication, Richard said. He and his wife worked late nights. Kent, his son, vividly recalled sleeping in a flower box as a child while his mother stayed late at the shop to do the bookkeeping.
“He just has a natural artistic ability that our side of the family inherited, that I didn’t inherit,” said Kent, who serves as a Montezuma County Commissioner. “My brother did, my dad did and my aunt. His sister had some and he had some other sisters that were very artistic too.”
The shop has stayed in the family. The business was operated for many years by Richard’s younger son and daughter-in-law, who recently announced the sale to Kinsey Ertel and Donnie Tanner earlier this month.
Richard said his father came from Scotland, but he didn’t know him.
Kent Lindsay said he is not sure how Edna, Richard’s mother, met his father, but it’s believed Richard’s biological father was a mine inspector at a McPhee mine and that he possibly died of exposure.
Richard recalled growing up on a farm in Cortez, and before that in the town of McPhee, Colorado – when it was still a town.
McPhee was a booming mill town situated five miles northwest of Dolores, run by the New Mexico Lumber Company between 1924 and 1948, according to the heritage museum.
The mill produced over 60% of the state’s lumber in the early 1920s, but museum records show damaging fires and a decline in timber coincides with the town’s downfall. Today, the reservoir covers the site of where it used to be.
“I can remember the large trains, which is now a little, itty-bitty thing. They hauled in logs, and I used to go down and watch them cut logs,” Richard said.
He remembered his mother was a wonderful cook and ran a boardinghouse.
She met and married the previously widowed Walter Ertel, who operated the funeral home in Cortez.
“The biggest memories I have is they started the farm here, which was just north of Broadway,” Kent said. “That was quite the family residence for awhile. They had in-laws and kids coming and going. They had a hay field that went clear up by the Ute (Mountain) truck stop at the time.”
At that time, he said, the west side of Cortez was “pretty much ... a really big hay field.”
Asked what is the secret to long life, Richard simply smiled and laughed.
“Oh, well, I think I have done everything you shouldn’t do,” he said. “I look around and my whole town here has changed so much, but at the time, it didn’t seem like it was changing.”
awatson@the-journal.com
