Lloyd Brown, 105; one of the last Navy vets of World War I

Lloyd Brown, one of the last surviving U.S. Navy veterans of World War I, has died. He was 105.

Brown died Thursday at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in St. Mary’s County, Md., according to family and the U.S. Naval District in Washington.

He died a day before the last known surviving American female World War I veteran, Charlotte L. Winters, 109.

Their deaths leave three known surviving veterans who served in the Army; a fourth, who lives in Washington state, served in the Canadian army, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A stonemason’s son, Brown was born Oct. 7, 1901, in Lutie, Mo., a small farming town in the Ozarks. His family later moved to Chadwick, Mo. In 1918, Brown, then 16, lied about his age to join the Navy and was soon on the battleship New Hampshire.

“All the young men were going in the service. They were making the headlines, the boys that enlisted,” Brown told the Baltimore Sun in a 2005 interview. “And all the girls liked someone in uniform.”

Brown finished his tour of duty in 1919, took a break for a couple of years, then reenlisted. He learned to play the cello at a musicians school in Norfolk, Va., and was assigned to an admiral’s 10-piece chamber orchestra aboard the combat support ship Seattle.

When Brown ended his military career in 1925, he joined the Washington Fire Department’s Engine Co. 16, which served the White House and embassies.

His marriage to Eileen Holland Brown ended in divorce. His second wife, Sadie Rutherford Brown, died in 1998.

He is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, two daughters from his second marriage, 12 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren.

Even after reaching 100, Brown remained independent, living alone in his Charlotte Hall bungalow and driving a golf cart around his neighborhood.