POCATELLO — The coronavirus pandemic may have quashed a surprise 100th birthday bash for one of the few remaining local World War II veterans, but it won’t put a damper on the celebration.

Staff at the Quail Ridge assisted living center on Hospital Way in Pocatello have been working feverishly to ensure Wayne Kies, who turns 100 on Thursday, can still enjoy his birthday celebration, albeit from the confines of the facility.

“Because we had to cancel his surprise birthday party, we are inviting the entire community to do a drive-by celebration from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday,” said Brooke Toner, the marketing director at Quail Ridge. “We’re planning on putting up some banners along Hospital Way to guide traffic and want folks to drive by, honk their horns and show Wayne a little bit of love on his special day.”

Kies was born in Alexandria, South Dakota, to Hattie and William Kies. His father was a member of the Army stationed in France during World War I, and became a farmer upon his return. Kies headed out West after his father passed away, he said.

“I grew up on a farm until my dad passed away ... (and) we moved,” Kies said. “When my mother got remarried, I didn’t get along with my stepfather and stepbrothers, so I went to work on another farm that summer but it got hailed out. They sold all their equipment and said they were headed out West. I called my mother and she said, ‘Well you ain’t got anything here,’ so I left.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, Kies joined the Army. His first enlistment was on Sept. 17, 1940, when he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, as an Army Private 1st Class, Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion in the 148th Field Artillery unit.

While stationed at Fort Lewis, Kies served as a chauffeur, “driving the brass around,” as he likes to put it.

“In the service, I got acquainted with the officers and they would have me drive them around,” Kies said. “An officer once handed me a $10 bill and said, ‘Go get a good meal and a drink,’ and I had too many drinks first. Of course, they harassed me after that and had me clean up the officers’ mess trays for quite a while.”

After completing over one year of service, Kies was honorably discharged by reason of expiring service on Oct. 4, 1941.

Upon his discharge, Kies stayed in Washington state and landed a job working with Boeing in Seattle. That’s where he would meet the love of his life — Kathleen, his wife of 77 years come September — who also happened to hail from South Dakota.

“When we were both working at the same shop at Boeing, I would flick rivets at her to get her attention,” Wayne said about Kathleen. “When they put our marriage in the paper down there in Seattle they said that I married ‘Rosie the Riveter.’”

Kathleen was born on Aug. 8, 1922, in Roscoe, South Dakota, to Ludvina and Paul Schmidt. Her father immigrated to the U.S. from Odessa, Russia, as a child. Wayne and Kathleen married in a small Catholic church in Seattle on Sept. 21, 1943. The couple currently lives together at Quail Ridge.

While at Boeing, Wayne worked as an assembler on aircraft for the war effort for two and a half years.

“I got a job at Boeing and the first paycheck I got for one day of work was $6.92,” Wayne said. “At that time, 69 cents an hour was pretty damn good.”

Wayne and Kathleen then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is where their first child, Wayne Jr., was born.

It took him several attempts to pass the eye exam, but on Aug. 28, 1944, Wayne began his second stint in the Army and was stationed at Fort Snelling in Minnesota. He was then sent to Fort Sill in Oklahoma where he drove a truck and assisted in the training of new recruits.

Wayne was awarded the rank of private first class and received the American Theater Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal.

“I had to memorize the eye chart just to get back into the service,” Wayne said.

Wayne and Kathleen would relocate to Coeur d’Alene after his military service where they raised three more children: Jean, Kathy and Charles. Today, Wayne has six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

Wayne said some of his best memories in Coeur d’Alene include starting up a seaplane business on the lake and recreating from their lakefront property purchased in the late 1950s.

Wayne served with the Knights of Columbus and worked at Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane from July 1946 until June 1983.

“I remember the guy at Kaiser asked me what I knew about pipes and I said, ‘Well, they’re round and have a hole in the center and I think you can put threads on them,” and he said, ‘You’re hired,’” Wayne said.

When he retired, Kaiser Aluminum presented Wayne with a large key to the city, complete with an inscription of his initials and the dates he was employed.

Kathleen served with the Catholic Daughters and eventually worked 16 years for the North Shore Convention Center as a manager.

After they both retired, they spent the next 20-plus years traveling, specifically to Yuma, Arizona, and into Mexico.

“We would head south for the winters,” Wayne said. “We rented a trailer down in Arizona, and I worked on it to fix it up. We got a fifth-wheel the next year and two years later we traded it off and got a bigger one, and eventually we set it up at the park, put a carpeted deck on it with a roof and screened it in. We had a lot of parties out there. We would go down to Mexico because you didn’t need a passport at the time. Boy those days were a lot of fun.”

Eventually, Wayne and Kathleen would settle down in Pocatello in the early 2000s.

“I just always kept going,” Wayne said. “I didn’t have enough sense to slow down and rest. Now that seems like all I do.”