But life wasn t always waking up to smell the flowers for this World War II vet.
Hill, born on April 20, 1921 in Dalzell, South Carolina, was one of 14 children on the family s 50-acre farm where he learned the value of hard work while tending to the animals, chopping cotton, and gathering crops. There wasn t much to do but it was a nice life growing up on the farm, recounted Hill.
Hill left school in the 10th grade to return to working on the farm so his oldest brother could graduate high school and go to college. I didn t think much of it, back then we had to pay to go to high school and college, we didn t have free high school and then you know I grew up on a farm with a big family and we didn t have enough money to send everyone to school at the same time, said Hill.