Walking on Air

by Janann Sherman

  I called Della May to introduce myself. It took several conversations and sending her copies of my books and pieces I’d written about Phoebe to convince her that I was a serious scholar and writer. I assured her that I had no designs on the materials. All I wanted to do was see them and use their contents to write the very best biography I could. She said I sounded like a very nice person (a good sign), but that she wanted some legal advice (maybe not a good sign).

  I impatiently waited the two weeks she requested before calling her back. She said that the papers were a mess, and that she would have to get her niece to help her sort them out before I could see them. (Sort them out!? Terrible words to a historian.) I gently suggested that I might be a better judge of what was valuable in the papers than her niece. I offered to come to Indianapolis, go through everything, sort and organize what had value. Della May told me about her deathbed promise to Phoebe and her concerns about the final disposition of the papers, saying she had been “praying to God every day to help” her resolve her dilemma. I said, “Della May, we are the answers to one another’s prayers. Without you, I cannot finish this biography, and without me, you cannot fulfill your promise to Phoebe.” Okay, she said, come on.

  At Della May’s home in Indianapolis, I found four large cardboard boxes and a small pile of personal items, including a battered suitcase, a traveling typewriter, and some clothes still in the dry cleaner’s bags. Among the treasures were stacks of crumbling clippings about her career and the political concerns that consumed the last years of her life; photographs covering a span of seventy years, from a formal baby picture to snapshots of her taken two weeks before she died; her first scrapbook, begun in 1921, in which she called herself an “air nut”; pieces of her autobiography and extended essays describing her role in federal projects, and why she left government in 1952; dozens of letters to friends and contemporaries and their replies, many neatly clipped together. These materials helped me fill in many of the missing puzzle pieces.1

  Although there remain many things about Phoebe that I do not and can never know, her story here is as complete as I can make it.

  Notes

  Chapter 1

  1. Marriage between Madge Traister and H. J. Park listed in Iowa Marriages, 1851–1900, Appanoose County, 30 April 1898; divorce listed in Des Moines Daily News, 7 July 1908.

  2. Federal Census, 1910 Polk County, Des Moines, Iowa, lists Madge Park as widowed with two children: Paul Park and Phebe Park (Madge’s mother was named Phebe Jane Corder). A copy of Phoebe’s birth certificate lists her as Phoebe G. [sic] Park, Omlie Collection, Memphis Public Library.

  3. Paul’s daughter, Deloris Navrkal, reports that until the knock on his door in 1943, Paul thought his father was dead. Author telephone interview with Navrkal, 5 November 2007. The story of Park and his daughter is in unpublished manuscript, Gene Slack Scharlau, Phoebe: A Biography, 1, in author’s possession.

  4. Andrew Fairgrave married Rose McIntyre in 1895 and divorced three years later. Fairgrave listed as living in Des Moines and operating a saloon in 1915 Iowa census; Fairgrave saloon listed in St. Paul City Directory for 1915 until 1919; “soft drinks” thereafter. Phoebe’s request for a copy of her birth certificate noted that she was “born Phoebe Jane Park, my mother later married Andrew Fairgrave whose name I adopted,” Omlie Collection. There is no evidence that Andrew formally adopted Madge’s children. Andrew ran a “near-beer” saloon in St. Paul in 1921 according to Glenn Messer, interview by Gene Scharlau, 1982, International Women’s Air and Space Museum, Cleveland (IWASM).

  5. The 1920 Senior Class statistics listed nationalities of the graduates: eight Swedish, seven German, four ½ Norwegian, three ½ French, two ½ Irish, two ½ Scotch, two Danes, two English, fourteen Jewish, and twenty-eight American, in The M (newsletter of Mechanic Arts High School) 21 June 1920. Graduates of Mechanic Arts included civil rights leader Roy Wilkins (class of 1919) and Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun (class of 1925). John W. Larson, “‘He Was Mechanic Arts’: Mechanic Arts High School: The Dietrich Lange Years, 1916–1939,” Ramsey County History 41, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 4–17.

  6. Thomas Minehan, The M, February 1919, in Larson, “‘He Was Mechanic Arts,’” 7.

  7. Class notes in The M, June 1919, 60.

  8. The M, June 1920, 21.

  9. Phoebe averred that dramatic lessons bolstered her self-confidence “maybe a bit too much,” in an early attempt at autobiography she called The Omlie Story, 12. The Omlie Story, and a similar piece labeled “third draft,” in Omlie Collection.

  10. The M, June 1920, 52, and November 1920, 33; The Omlie Story, 19.

  11. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10 September 1919.

  12. Ibid.

  13. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 9 September 1919. The planes, owned by the Curtiss-Northwest Airplane Company, were flown by V. C. Omley (this is Vernon C. Omlie), C. F. Keyes, Ray S. Miller, and M. A. Northrup.

  14. The Omlie Story, 9–10.

  15. Katherine Stinson also did exhibition flying in the Midwest at this time. She had been flying since 1912, and on 18 July 1915, at Cicero Field in Chicago, Stinson became the first woman to perform a loop. Noel E. Allard and Gerald N. Sandvick, Minnesota Aviation History 1857–1945 (Chaska, MN: MAHB Publishing, 1993), 41.

  16. Allard and Sandvick, Minnesota Aviation History, 29–31, 41–42.

  17. Information on Curtiss Headless Pusher from Albuquerque Museum, www.airmind ed.net.

  18. Oneonta (New York) Daily Star, 20 November 1916. This flight also discussed by Amelia Earhart in The Fun of It, (Chicago: Chicago Academy Publishers, 1992 [reprint of 1932]), 186–188.

  19. Kokomo Daily Tribune, 5 December 1916; incident also described by Amelia Earhart in The Fun of It, 188.

  20. http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/law.html.

  21. Lancaster (Ohio) Daily Watch, 5 August 1918.

  22. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 5 July 1917.

  23. Fort Wayne Daily News, 8 June 1917.

  24. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 6 January 1917.

  25. Playbill detailing stunts published in Des Moines Sunday Capital, 14 August 1921.

  26. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 7 September 1919. Phoebe’s name was not among those listed as attending or going for a ride that day; these girls were described as members of “local society” at White Bear. Lieutenant Miller would later provide Phoebe with her first airplane ride.

  27. The JN4D, powered by a 90 horsepower Curtiss OX-5 engine, was the first mass- produced American aircraft, purchased in quantity by the U.S. military during the war, and used as a primary trainer. The Jenny was notoriously unstable. The plane’s huge wings made it very susceptible to wind gusts, its controls were very stiff, and the plane was easy to spin but difficult to recover. About 6,750 Jennys were produced by war’s end. Joe Christy, American Aviation, 2nd ed. (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: TAB Books, 1994), 16. Curtiss-Northwest Field was on Snelling and Larpenteur Avenues near the state fairgrounds in St. Paul. The Omlie Story, 16–17.

  28. The Omlie Story, 19–22.

  29. The Omlie Story, 22–25; this story repeated by Flora G. Orr, “Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie: Special Assistant to Air Intelligence, N.A.C.A.,” in Holland’s: The Magazine of the South, September 1935, 32, clipping in Tennessee State Library and Archives.

  30. This is an astonishing amount of money in 1920, when the average annual income for all workers was $1,489. Inflation Calculator, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. Curtiss-Northwest had bought the planes from the government for a few hundred dollars each, then resold them for the princely sum of $3,500. The cost of Jennys quickly plunged as more flooded the market; by the mid-1920s one could be had for as little as $300. Omlie Story, 3rd draft, 66; Nick A. Komons, Bonfires to Beacons: Federal Civil Aviation Policy Under the Air Commerce Act, 1926–1938 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 10–12.

  31. The $15 fee verified in a description by William Kidder of the airport’s opening in 1918, when t
hey had such a large crowd vying for rides at this fee that the management took in several thousand dollars that day. Allard and Sandvick, Minnesota Aviation History, 140; The Omlie Story, 26.

  32. Locklear appeared at the Minnesota State Fair in 1919, where he did wing walking and a plane-to-plane transfer. Some 200,000 attended the fair that day and it is possible Phoebe was one of them. Allard and Sandvick, Minnesota Aviation History, 41. Phoebe had a picture postcard of Locklear “entertaining Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties at Curtiss Field—St. Paul, Minn.” in her Scrapbook, Omlie Collection. Locklear was killed in 1920 during the filming of a nighttime crash for William Fox’s film The Skywayman. Apparently blinded by the studio’s searchlights, he spun into the ground. Don Dwiggins, The Air Devils: The Story of Balloonists, Barnstormers, and Stunt Pilots (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1966), 152; Robert Wohl, The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920–1950 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 113.

  33. Hardin’s new design featured a series of springs between the pack bottom and a fiber board that ejected the canopy from the pack. The military rejected Hardin’s chute as “too weak, bulky and uncomfortable.” Dan Poynter, The Parachute Manual: A Technical Treatise on Aerodynamic Decelerators (Santa Barbara, CA: Para Publishing, 1984), 163; The Omlie Story, 27–28.

  34. The Hardin Parachute Company, Inc., was located at 515 Metropolitan Bank Building, Minneapolis.

  35. The Perils of Pauline was an episodic cliffhanger serial that ran in weekly installments at movie theaters beginning in 1914 and running throughout the 1920s. Only a few episodes survive, none of them, alas, involving aerial stunts. Movie studios often generated “generic” footage of the drama and dangers of flying that were used in news-reels and in many, mostly undistinguished, films with titles like Broken Wing, Speed Girl, and Wings Outstretched. Fox produced a host of aviation films, including The Air Hawk (1925), Aflame in the Sky (1927), and Air Circus (1928), as did other motion picture companies. For a list of films featuring flying during the 1920s and 1930s, see H. Hugh Wynne, The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood’s Classic Aviation Movies (Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1987), 171–176.

  36. The Omlie Story, 28–29.

  37. Fox Film Corporation, William Fox (New York) president, local manager M. J. Weisfelt, at 807 Produce Exchange Building, Minneapolis City Directory, 1920 and 1921. William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and produced hundreds of early silent films, serials, and feature films. Fox merged with Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935 to become Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

  38. The Omlie Story, 29–31.

  39. Ibid., 31–32.

  40. The first recorded parachute jump from an airplane was executed by Grant Morton, who jumped from a Wright Model B airplane flying over Venice Beach, California, in 1911. He carried his folded parachute in his arms; as he jumped, he threw his folded canopy into the air. The parachute opened and he landed safely. Australian Parachute Federation, “History of the Parachute,” www.apf.asn.au/history.

  41. The Omlie Story, 72.

  42. Throughout her career, every story about Phoebe asserts that she launched her career with a $4,000 inheritance from her grandfather. In her memoirs, she confesses that she gave reporters that “white lie” to cover up the real terms of the deal made with her mother. She claims that her father never suspected the truth as she paid off the loan rather rapidly and always made the payments at Christmastime so as not to arouse his suspicions. The Omlie Story, 35–36, 39–48.

  43. Ibid., 44–45.

  44. Ibid., 54–61.

  45. Ibid., 61–65.

  46. Ibid., 67–68.

  47. Omlie enlisted in the infantry in June 1916 and served with Pershing on the Mexican border chasing Pancho Villa. He transferred to the Air Service when war came in 1917, learned flying at Kelly Field in San Antonio; he later transferred to Ellington Field outside Houston where he became a bombing instructor, serving there until his discharge in April 1919. Biographical data form for The International Cyclopedia of Aviation Biography, completed by Omlie, 28 February 1930; summary in Phoebe’s Personnel File, apparently submitted to secure civil service classification in 1939, Omlie Collection.

  48. Allard and Sandvick, Minnesota Aviation History, 42, 61–63, 94.

  49. From essay by Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, “About the Author,” in her unpublished manuscript The Silent Majority Speaks Out, Omlie Collection.

  50. The Non-Partisan League (an organization with which Charles Lindbergh’s father was connected) was formed in 1915 to lobby political parties on behalf of farmers; it was especially active in Minnesota and North Dakota. Its influence faded following the indictment and conviction of Townley and his manager Joseph Gilbert for opposing the war effort and discouraging the sale of Liberty Bonds. Motions for a new trial were denied by the Supreme Court. See unattributed clipping, 24 October 1919, Omlie Collection.

  51. The Omlie Story, 70.

  52. Phoebe was barely five feet tall and not quite 100 pounds. Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 10 July 1921. Glenn Messer, who flew stunts with Phoebe, pegged her weight at 86 pounds. Messer interview, IWASM.

  53. The Omlie Story, 71–75.

  54. Charles E. Planck, Women with Wings (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), 55.

  55. The Omlie Story, 79–80.

  56. Ibid., 83–84.

  57. Ibid., 80–82.

  58. Vernon began work for Curtiss-Northwest on 1 April 1920 for $25 a week and $35 expenses; Vernon Omlie Datebook, Omlie Collection.

  59. While some jumpers tied the chute to a wing strut, this made the plane extra unstable due to the interruption of airflow over the wings.

  60. The Omlie Story, 87–91.

  61. Ibid., 86.

  62. Ibid., 90–92. Phoebe Fairgrave, “Jumps I Have Made,” The M, February 1922, 23–24.

  63. One of them was Lena Hickok, then working for the Minneapolis Morning Tribune. This is the same Lorena Hickok who served as first lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling companion during the New Deal. Phoebe reconnected with Hickok when she campaigned for FDR in 1936; Hickok was then working for the National Democratic Committee. See The Omlie Story, 99, 101.

  64. Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 18 April 1921; St. Paul Pioneer Press, 19 April 1921.

  65. There apparently was a good deal of jealousy and animus between Paul and Vernon. Paul allegedly once told Phoebe that if she married Vernon, he would never speak to her again. Whether for this reason, or others, Phoebe and Paul were estranged for the rest of their lives. Telephone interview by author with Phoebe’s niece, Deloris Navrkal, 5 November 2007; Messer interview, IWASM.

  66. Vernon Omlie Datebook, Omlie Collection. The Omlie Story, 102.

  67. The Omlie Story, 29–31. By 1921, David Wark Griffith, Associated First National Pictures, Goldwyn Film Company, Selznick Pictures Corporation, Universal Film Company, and William Fox Studios were producing films in which flying and airplanes were an essential part of the action. See Jim and Maxine Greenwood, Stunt Flying in the Movies (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 1982), 38–41.

  68. Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 10 July 1921.

  69. Charley Hardin probably taught her this trick. Charles Lindbergh, during his barnstorming days in 1925, did a double parachute drop with a Hardin parachute. Fairgrave, The M, February 1922, 23.

  70. Fairgrave, The M, February 1922, 23–24. See also yellow typed notes dated 15 December 1934, Omlie Collection.

  71. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11 May 1921.

  72. Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 10 July 1921.

  73. She wrote, “I was supposed to be fortunate in having basketball shoes on—the rubber attracting the current and the hole in the shoe permitting it to go out. How true this is I do not know.” Phoebe’s account of the accident in handwritten notes, Omlie Collection.

  74. He did put it in the papers, Des Moines Register, 30 July 1921.

  75. Phoebe’s handwritten notes, Omlie C
ollection.

  76. Ibid. See also Charles Land Callen, “There’s No Stopping a Woman with Courage Like This,” American Magazine, August 1929, 144. In response to requests for biographical information about his wife, Vernon Omlie referred inquirers to this article.

  77. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11 July 1921; Fairgrave, “Jumps I Have Made,” 23–24.

  78. Des Moines Evening Tribune, 11 July 1921.

  79. Mabel Cody was Buffalo Bill’s niece. Ron Dick and Dan Patterson, Aviation Century: The Golden Age (Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 2004), 204.

  80. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 5 June 1973, Omlie Collection.

  81. List of “towns made during the 1921 season,” Omlie Collection.

  82. The term “barnstorming” came from traveling theatrical groups who often performed in barns. Dominick A. Pisano, “The Greatest Show Not on Earth: The Confrontations between Utility and Entertainment in Aviation,” in The Airplane in American Culture, ed. Pisano (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003), 51.

  83. Their net profit for the summer of 1921 was $159.32. Vernon Omlie’s Datebook lists expenses and income, Omlie Collection.

  84. Undated clipping from Quincy, Illinois, Scrapbook, Omlie Collection.

  85. Messer interview, IWASM.

  86. Yellow typed notes, 15 December 1934, Omlie Collection; story also recounted by Planck, Women with Wings, 53–55, and referenced in Messer interview, IWASM.

  87. Memphis Evening Appeal, 28 March 1929.

  88. Fairfield (Iowa) Daily Ledger-Journal, 5 August 1921. Yellow typed notes, 15 December 1934, Omlie Collection; Planck, Women with Wings, 53–55.

  89. Undated story by John White, photocopy in Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  90. Unattributed newspaper clipping, Scrapbook, Omlie Collection.

  91. Glenn Messer indicated that Phoebe worked with him on at least one film entitled “Price of Honor.” Messer interview, IWASM.