Last week a local veteran, living at AdviniaCare in Naples, turned 101. A birthday party was thrown by his daughter, the Lions Club, and also attended by fellow Veteran brothers of the community. The WWII veteran is Vincenzo “Jimmy” Renda, born Feb. 23, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of three sons of Sicilian-America immigrants.

He and his brothers grew up together in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn in a community of primarily Italian immigrants. Jimmy attended PS 114 and then gained acceptance to the prestigious Boy’s High School in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He briefly attended Brooklyn College and when the war broke out, Jimmy joined the US Army Air Corps and served honorably until 1945.