With all the eagerly helpful people on this list, you surely
have a sound answer now, wherein most will attribute this to
the late General Douglas MacArthur (spell, please,DN?), who
in one of his "farewell" addresses emitted, "Old soldiers
never die, the just (bzw "only") fade away."  Actually he
was, in fact quoting:  I first ran across this in a book I
read in early 1935 with the title, "Old Soldier Sahib".
That would probably indicate a British source.l

Among the many variations that I have heard since the
General's well know use, is, "Old bikers (i.e. motorcycle
riders) never die:  they just get recycled."

By the way, it should be easy to verify my quote via
interlibrary loan, if I am challenged.

		John

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