A Northwest Missouri native listened as U.S. senators made a case Thursday afternoon for legislation that bears his name.

Other Missourians, however, argued for a different bill that would designate for Kansas City a national World War I memorial.

Frank Buckles, born 108 years ago near Bethany, Mo., attended the Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee hearing where lawmakers heard various memorial ideas. Mr. Buckles is thought to be the only American veteran of World War I still living.

Three senators - John Thune of South Dakota, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Jim Webb of Virginia - have proposed the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act, a measure that would rededicate the District of Columbia War Memorial as a national site honoring the conflict.

Such a designation would add a World War I presence to the Washington Mall, where memorials already exist for World War II and wars in Vietnam and Korea.

"I think it's an excellent idea," said Mr. Buckles, now a West Virginia resident and honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation.

Such an idea, however, conflicts with a bill offered by Missouri Sens. Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond designating Kansas City's Liberty Memorial as the national site.

That legislation points out that since the memorial's dedication in 1921, Presidents Coolidge, Truman and Eisenhower have all spoken of the 217-foot tower as the war's national centerpiece.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who offered companion legislation in the U.S. House, said Liberty Memorial was built and financed by people in Kansas City. When he served as mayor, Mr. Cleaver asked the National Park Service to take over the memorial, a request declined. A local sales tax subsequently restored the monument.

"We assumed the responsibility. We did not want one dime from the federal government," he testified Thursday.

The House passed Mr. Cleaver's bill 418 to 1 earlier this fall.

Katherine Stevenson, an assistant director of the National Park Service, testified that no study had been conducted about an appropriate site for a national World War I memorial. Such as a study would require a congressional appropriation and take about three years to complete, she said.

The subcommittee took no action on either of the bills.

According to Sen. Mark Udall, the Coloradoan who chaired the subcommittee, Mr. Buckles told a fellow senator his keys to longevity: one, stay busy; two, keep fit; and three, "start young."

Mr. Udall added, "Given the celebrity nature of his appearance here today, I wanted to make sure we learned the appropriate lessons, along with his wonderful patriotic service."

Mr. Rockefeller called Mr. Buckles "the last man standing, and an extraordinary man at that."

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.