Richard Overton, believed to have been the oldest man in the US, has died in Texas at the age of 112.

Olverton, who was also thought to have been the oldest US veteran of the second world war, had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia but was released on Christmas Eve. He died on Thursday evening, according to a family member.

Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the US army and was at Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack in 1941. He once said that one of the secrets to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often did on the porch of his Austin home.

His recent birthdays drew national attention, and strangers would stop at his house to meet him. Even well into his 100s, he would drive widows in his neighbourhood to church.

“With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honoured to have known him,” the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said in a statement. He called Overton “an American icon and Texas legend”.

Richard Overton was honoured by Barack Obama at a Veterans Day ceremony in 2013. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/EPA

“Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans,” Abbott said. “We can never repay Richard Overton for his service to our nation and for his lasting impact on the lone star state.”

Overton was born near Austin in 1906 and served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion.

Barack Obama honoured him at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington national cemetery in 2013.

“He was there at Pearl Harbour, when the battleships were still smouldering,” Obama said. “He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima, where he said, ‘I only got out of there by the grace of God.’”