\u201cI don\u2019t carry grudges around,\u201d Buford said. \u201cI don\u2019t carry anger around. I tell jokes. I try to enjoy life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yougita Bali, a resident care assistant who worked with Buford at Mercy McMahon, saw this firsthand. Even though Buford was receiving hospice care his entire time at the facility, he still exercised, had three meals a day with other residents and got to know people.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody loved him,\u201d Bali said.<\/p>\n
Buford\u2019s World War II service<\/p>\n
Born in the Los Angeles area on Aug. 17, 1921, Buford volunteered for the Army after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The results of an intelligence assessment delayed his combat deployment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a guy who had never done anything but play around,\u201d Buford said. \u201cI had a convertible and I knew girls all over East L.A., and I was living a happy life and I figured I was capable of working at a gas station or something. And I go in the Army, and they give me an intelligence test. Turns out I\u2019m really intelligent. I just goofed off. So they sent me to college at Iowa State.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buford eventually became part of Easy Company of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, within the 101st Airborne Division. As part of this group, he arrived in Bastogne, Belgium, around Dec. 20, 1944. German forces quickly surrounded his unit. The siege would last until Gen. George Patton\u2019s Third Army arrived on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
It was a snowy winter and men like Buford had to battle the elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built big bonfires to get warm,\u201d Buford said. \u201cNow, we\u2019ve been up in the front, and they\u2019re firing at us. Some of our buddies are getting hit. What the hell do you think we talk about back there? Girls. We don\u2019t talk about the war. We talk about girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the war ended, he returned to the Los Angeles area and was self-effacing about his service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad I was in the Army,\u201d Buford said. \u201cI felt like it was an obligation. It was a worthwhile experience and all that. But if you look at my uniform, you don\u2019t see any medals.\u201d<\/p>\n
What brought Buford to Sacramento<\/p>\n
Buford lived most of his life in Southern California, spending 72 years in Ventura. Along the way, he married, had four sons and did surveying work to build highways.<\/p>\n
He also adjusted his life perspective, according to his son Tom Buford, a retired Sacramento city planner.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs he aged, Howard came to recognize that friends were his lifeline,\u201d Tom Buford wrote in an obituary for his father that ran in the Ventura County Star<\/a>. \u201cHe made friends; he supported friends; he told his friends that he valued them, and they were an important part of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n Howard Buford was living independently in Ventura until he suffered a fall last August. Tom Buford moved his father to Sacramento not long thereafter, first to his East Sacramento home and then to nearby Mercy McMahon.<\/p>\n Tom Buford said that he\u2019d been amazed at how many Mercy McMahon staff knew and appreciated his father. This included Bali, a resident care aide who said she worked with Howard Buford the entire time he was at Mercy McMahon.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a wonderful person, always happy, jolly, like making people laugh, telling stories about the war and stuff,\u201d Bali said. \u201cHe was really a nice guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Howard Buford got to know the residents, too.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made a number of friends,\u201d Tom Buford said. \u201cI\u2019ve had numerous people that were living there tell me that they just really enjoyed him and he was cheerful and energetic.\u201d<\/p>\n Buford remained active into his final weeks, speaking for several hours with multiple people who wanted to talk to him about his military service, Tom Buford said.<\/p>\n Howard Buford is survived by his three sons: Tom Buford, David Buford and Russ Buford. A fourth son, Scott Buford, died in 2025. Howard Buford was married for 50 years to Rita Buford until her death in 1997. He subsequently remarried. His second wife, Betty Benson, died in 2013.<\/p>\n Tom Buford said that a memorial service for his father is planned for June in Ventura. There aren\u2019t plans for a Sacramento memorial.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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