[nycgal]

the 1918 flu epidemic did his parents in and he was adopted

How old is Byrd? If his parents died in 1918, he is at least 85 years old.

[Xthe17th]

Robert Carlyle Byrd of Sophia, Raleigh County, W.Va. Born November 20, 1917 (as Cornelius Calvin Sale) in North Wilkesboro, Wilkes County, NC. Natural parents died of influenza in epidemic of 1918 and thus little orphan Bobby was reared by his aunt and uncle as their own in the Mountain State.