The year 1923 was an important one in American culture: it was the year the first baseball game was played in the original Yankee Stadium in New York City; the year media giant Warner Brothers was established and the year the now ubiquitous Time Magazine was first launched.
For Destrehan resident Robert Tranchant Jr., 1923 remains an important year in history, but for an entirely different reason – it was the year of his birth, one century ago.
Born in New Orleans on July 23 in 1923, Tranchant celebrated his 100th birthday with friends at the German Coast Farmers Market on Saturday. Known affectionately by Farmers Market regulars as “Mr. Bob,” Tranchant says his earliest memory as a young boy was when he and his eight siblings lived near the corner of Milan and Magazine Streets in New Orleans.
“I used to walk [from Magazine Street] to [Audubon Park] quite often, that I can remember very well,” he said fondly, which would have been a roughly four-mile walk. “When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I sometimes would skip school and just walk down Magazine Street to Audubon Park.”
A World War II veteran, Tranchant joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 at the age of 18 and served as an aviation machinist working in various naval bases such as San Diego, Daytona Beach and the Panama Canal. He was stationed in Miami in 1945 when the war finally ended. He later came home and became an electrical contractor, a field he worked in the entirety of his career.
“I used to do new construction,” he commented. “Matter of fact, I still have a customer I had for about 35 or 40 years, and he calls me once in a while…but I don’t do [electrical work] anymore.”
Searching for an ideal place to retire, Tranchant and his late wife first moved to the Destrehan area 30 years ago, where he has remained ever since. His wife passed away around 20 years ago, and only two of his eight siblings now remain. The Tranchants had one son, Robert Tranchant III, who visits often and assists his dad in running his pineapple plant business each weekend.
As to the secret of his longevity, Tranchant offered readers simple, easy-to-follow advice.
“The only thing I can tell you – eat a decent meal, and be very active,” he said plainly.
At 100 years old, Tranchant takes his own advice of remaining active by tending to his pineapple plants and running his own produce business.
He starts each morning with a healthy breakfast, goes outside to observe the weather, and tends to his pineapple plants each day – taking care to stay out of the heat on especially hot days. Each Saturday his son helps him tow his produce trailer to the German Coast Farmers Market, where he offers the numerous pineapple plants he raises himself for sale to the public.
The greatest innovation during his lifetime he says he was in awe to observe firsthand was in the aviation industry. During World War II, Tranchant said the most advanced aircraft the Navy seemed to have at the time were [by today’s standards, lower tech] planes. He observed the aviation industry change dramatically in the decades that would follow the end of the war.
“The growth from the bi-wing airplane to the fighter planes we have today has been tremendous,” Tranchant said.
When asked if there was anything left unfinished in his lifetime that he did not get to complete, Tranchant did not hesitate with his answer.
“No, not really…I think I did everything I wanted to do,” he said affirmatively. “There’s a few things I’d like to do over again, though.”
To celebrate his 100th birthday, his immediate plans included visiting one of his two younger sisters shortly after the German Coast Farmers Market birthday celebration, held in his honor.
As a former aviation machinist’s mate, I’ll have to point out some errors in this article. The bi-wing planes had been mostly phased out. The main fighter was the Grumman F4F, which was outclassed by the Japanese Zero. The F4F was succeeded by the F6F Wildcat which was a game-changer. There were also the TBM, SB2C, SBD, F4U, and maybe more that I’ve forgotten. After the Battle of Midway, the U.S. enjoyed air supremacy, although the kamikazis caused considerable damage.