Robert “Bob” Lee Trent, who is turning 100 on Monday, laughs at his birthday party at his home Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
(Tribune News Service) — The year Bob Trent was born, a dozen eggs cost 55 cents.
That was just one of the many facts about 1925 hanging at Trent’s 100th birthday party on Sunday afternoon.
Robert “Bob” Trent was born in Ely, Nev., on July 28, 1925. Before he even turned 18, he began serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II.
That makes him part of the less than 1% of the 16.4 million Americans who served during World War II who are still alive, according to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. There were under 500 World War II veterans alive in Nevada as of 2024, according to the data.
During his military service, Trent was part of the team that sank the Japanese battleship Yamato in April 1945. The United States Fifth Fleet took down the ship, known for its strength and weight, with aerial torpedoes.
On Sunday, Trent sat among a packed home of friends and family from all over the country celebrating his century-long life. Photos of his time in service hung all over the house, and people signed cards.
Despite his family’s pride in his service, they said Trent is not the type to brag.
“It was nothing special,” Trent said as he sat by the pool at his home in the southwest valley Sunday. “I was just like any other crewmen on the aircraft.”
Pictures are laid out during a birthday party for Robert “Bob” Lee Trent, who is turning 100 on Monday, at his home Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
‘Bloodline of real Nevadans’
After serving in the Navy, Trent came to Las Vegas with his family, where he has been for 80 years. He worked at a trailer park that his parents bought and ran a grocery store with his brother. He also worked as a pipe fitter, and then started Western Fleet, a mechanic shop that he sold when he retired at 82.
Many of the guests Sunday sported shirts with a picture of Trent during his time in the war, with “Nevada born” in bold letters. Nevada born is an understatement for Trent: his mom was born in Nevada, he was born in Nevada and his kids were born in Nevada.
“They’re a bloodline of real Nevadans,” his wife, Joanne Trent, said.
The couple was set up on a blind date in 1969. Bob Trent had the flu and didn’t make it, something that pleased his future wife because she hated blind dates.
Trent made it up to her with a call to reschedule the next day. When he did show up, he brought her what Joanne Trent said was a “fistful of flowers.”
Kat Cooney wears a shirt with her dad on it during a birthday party for Robert “Bob” Lee Trent, who is turning 100 on Monday, at his home Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
‘Just one day at a time’
Together, the couple raised a blended family of children in a house on west Russell Road in the southwest valley.
At the time, the area was just a dirt road, and there was nothing past Rainbow Boulevard, Trent’s daughter, Kat Cooney said. Trent is a woodworker and carpenter, and he built the house from scratch.
These days, Trent said he spends his time watching television. He especially likes cowboy movies because they always have a happy ending.
Trent’s 100th birthday initiated him into the 0.03 percent of the United States population to reach age 100, according to the Pew Research Center. But as for his secret? He said he does not have one.
“Just one day at a time,” Trent said. “It just happened. No secrets at all.”
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