PEARLAND, Texas — Charles Mills has a simple explanation for his longevity. The key to growing old gracefully? The 105-year-old Galveston native doesn’t hesitate.
“I tell everybody God and I had a thing going, he set the rules and I followed them,” Mills said.
Born in Galveston on June 18, 1920, during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, Mills grew up in a home on Avenue K and 10th Street during the Great Depression. He came of age in a segregated neighborhood in the segregated South, where opportunities were limited by the color of his skin. Even his achievements as a Boy Scout in Troop 16 were restricted by racial barriers…