BOSSIER CITY -- Ray Urban Jr. is 89 years old. He's an avid gardner, is active in civil clubs and is a member of the Bossier Parish sheriff's posse. He checks on shut-ins and brings food to the elderly. He says he hasn't been in the hospital for 20 years, when he had colon cancer.

He didn't get to be a paratrooper during World War II because he was laid up with a kidney illness. But he jumped at age 78, 80 and 85.

One more time.

The retired businessman from Bossier City will parachute Sunday as part of his 90th birthday party. Like the other jumps, it will be a tandem jump with an expert

"I think I want to prove something to myself," Urban said. "Maybe I'm nuts, but I just want to go ahead and do it again."

His son tried to talk him out of making the jump but Urban, a widower, said he's not worried about getting hurt.

"He said, 'What if you break a leg?' I said, 'I can break a leg going off the steps,'" Urban said.

His daughter, Lisa Cochran of Ackworth, Ga., said her father's first parachute jump was 13 years ago. He enjoyed it so much he did it again when he turned 80 and 85.

"When he jumped at 85, he said, 'God willing, I'm going to jump on my 90th,'" Cochran said. "I don't want to say it's his bucket list. He said it was probably his ego.

"He's going to be 90 and this is what he wants to do. So we're throwing him a skydiving party," she said.

Urban enlisted in the Marines during World War II. Complications from a kidney stone after boot camp put him in the hospital for two and a half months and cost him his chance at being a paratrooper. He promised himself he would jump someday, for fun.

He isn't the only geriatric jumper: Former President George H.W. Bush, also a World War II veteran, skydived to celebrate his 75th, 80th and 85th birthdays.

Urban's jump will be made at noon Sunday. He'll land at the airstrip in the village of Gilliam in north Caddo Parish.