Breuning was a lifelong cigar smoker , but said in an interview at age 110 that he quit in 1999 when he was 103 , saying they had become too expensive . However , at the age of 108 he briefly started smoking again , encouraged by gifts of cigars from as far away as London . Breuning retained a sharp memory . For example , he could remember his grandfather talking about his experiences in the American Civil War when he was three years old , and remembered the day President William McKinley was shot as the day " I got my first haircut "
shot
Assassination of William McKinley
Walter Breuning