October 21, 2026

By Mary Beth Gahan

In April 1974, Robert Lee Rippy turned 100 years old and was the guest of honor at a ceremony in Flower Mound where he unveiled a street sign with his name on it: Rippy Road.

The mayor was there, as well as family members and neighbors. A couple of photos ran in the Lewisville Daily Leader.

That wasn’t the end to the centenarian’s claim to fame.

At 102, he was named the area’s oldest citizen. When he renewed his driver’s license a couple of years later, on the cusp of 104, a reporter talked with him about his driving experience. It was picked up by the Associated Press and distributed to newspapers across the country. Rippy was told to come back in four years to renew his license. He just wanted to make it to 107 like his grandfather.

Later, he was featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Rippy said he’d never had a serious accident and had been driving since the early 20th century. In the late part of his life, his excursions were limited to grocery shopping twice a week, a distance of about 12 miles round trip.

Nowadays, a grocery run from his house wouldn’t take that long from. In fact, a proposed development could bring an H-E-B to the corner of Rippy Road and Waketon Road where Rippy farmed more seven decades ago.

Considering all the changes he saw in his lifetime, it might not surprise him. He was born during Reconstruction and died after the Vietnam War ended.

Rippy was born on April 19, 1874 in Johnson County, Texas. His father fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy until he was captured and offered to fight Native Americans on behalf of the Union, according to Sweet Flower Mound Land. He received a pension from the Confederacy and the United States government.

Rippy’s only child died at 22 years old in 1918 when he was on his way to France to fight in World War I.

On Nov. 7, 1936, Rippy bought 102 acres for $21 per acre with his second wife Dena, according to Denton County property records.

He was a farmer and rancher who got his start in Fort Worth. He saw cattle drives from Texas to Kansas City and watched the television as a man walked on the moon.

“You can’t hardly beat that,” he told the Associated Press.

Rippy celebrated 58 years of marriage to Dena on April 18, 1979 and died six days later. He was 105.