Walking on Air

by Janann Sherman

  41. The CPTP is often referred to by historians as “the brainchild of Robert H. Hinckley.” However, Hinckley acknowledged that he modeled the national program after Tennessee’s in a speech at Nashville, 19 May 1942. Once the federal government launched its program, Tennessee abandoned its own program. By that time, TCPTP had given free ground school courses to more than 4,000 people and turned out 150 private pilots. See Pisano, To Fill the Skies with Pilots, 3, 10; Janene Leonhirth, “They also flew: Women Aviators in Tennessee, 1922–1950” (MA thesis, Middle Tennessee State University, 1990), 20. Hinckley speech cited in Personnel File, Exhibit “B”, Omlie Collection.

  42. “Civilian Pilot Training Program,” National Museum of the United States Air Force, www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets. See also Pisano, To Fill the Skies with Pilots, 50–57, 76.

  43. Roosevelt Executive Order #8974, issued 12 December 1941, shifted all pilot training to military purposes and converted the CPTP to the War Training Service. John R. M. Wilson, Turbulence Aloft: The Civil Aeronautics Administration Amid Wars and Rumors of War, 1938–1953 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, 1979), 102.

  44. Letter, Robert Hinckley to Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in Planck, Women with Wings, 150.

  45. The three-member Air Safety Board was part of the CAA but operated independently. It was assigned to investigate accidents, determine their probable cause, and make recommendations for accident prevention. FAA Historical Chronology, 1926–1996.

  46. Exchanges, dated 31 October 1939 to 4 April 1939, Presidential Personal Files, Box 3969, FDRL.

  47. Exhibit “B,” Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  48. Letters in White House Correspondence, Eleanor Roosevelt, Box 1564–1565, FDRL.

  49. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Eleanor Roosevelt, 15 January 1941; Letter, Eleanor Roosevelt to Jesse Jones, 23 January 1941, White House Correspondence, Eleanor Roosevelt, Box 1607, FDRL.

  50. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 5 February 1941.

  51. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 6 December 1973, Omlie Collection.

  52. New York Times, 9 March 1941; Miami Herald, 11 January 1946.

  53. “Phoebe Omlie Hops Off for Defense,” Democratic Digest, March 1941, 16.

  54. New York Times, 9 March 1941; Exhibit “A” Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  55. Commercial Appeal, 28 May 1941. The Civil Pilot Training Act of 1939 contained a provision introduced by Rep. Everett Dirksen stipulating that “none of the benefits of training or programs shall be denied on account of race, creed or color.” As a result, the CPTP offered instruction for African American students in five black colleges, training approximately 2,000 black pilots during the war. Pisano, To Fill the Skies with Pilots, 49.

  56. Jackson (Tennessee) Sun, 1 December 1942.

  57. Washington Daily News, 6 April 1943.

  58. In November 1942, a couple months after the instructor school began in Nashville, the first class of fifty women entered training for the WAFs. New York Times, 18 November 1942.

  59. Percy McDonald, “Aviation in Tennessee,” address delivered 10 August 1944, Nashville, Personnel File, Omlie Collection. Janene Leonhirth, “Tennessee’s Experiment: Women as Military Flight Instructors,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 51 (Fall 1992): 170–178.

  60. Tennessee Aeronautics Commission, Minutes, 27 November 1942, p. 7, TAC Box 1, Folder 4, Tennessee State Archives, Nashville.

  61. Col. Herbert S. Fox, “Women Take Wings,” Charm magazine, May 1943, 57.

  62. Letter, Robert Hinckley to W. Percy McDonald, 30 June 1942, quoted in Leonhirth, “They also flew,” 63.

  63. Letter of invitation, W. Percy McDonald, “Re: Free Flying Instructors Course for Women Pilots,” 1 September 1942, Omlie Collection.

  64. Jane Eads, Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times, 13 December 1942.

  65. Gene Slack, “Tennessee’s Airwomen,” Flying magazine, May 1943, 128.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Slack, “Tennessee’s Airwomen,” 46–47, 128–130; Jane Eads, Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times, 13 December 1942.

  68. Quoted by Eads, Asheville Citizen-Times.

  69. Gene Slack, “Tennessee’s Airwomen,” 128.

  70. An overseas cap, or garrison cap, is a foldable cap with straight sides, part of the uniform issued to military personnel.

  71. TAC Minutes, 27 November 1942, 7.

  72. Slack, “Tennessee’s Airwomen,” 128; Dorothy Swain Lewis, interview with author, 21 October 2000; Emma Jean Whittington Hall, interview with author, 9 July 2001, North Little Rock.

  73. Commercial Appeal, 13 June 1943; Cooper, How High She Flies, 71.

  74. Dorothy Lewis interview.

  75. Nashville Tennessean, 11 September 1942; Emma Hall interview.

  76. Nashville Tennessean, 30 September 1942.

  77. Slack, “Tennessee’s Airwomen,” 130.

  78. Washington Daily News, 6 April 1943.

  79. Atlanta Journal, 30 May 1943.

  80. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 31 December 1942.

  81. Leonhirth, “Tennessee’s Experiment,” 175.

  82. Nashville Tennessean, 4 February 1943.

  83. Washington Daily News, 6 April 1943; Cooper, How High She Flies, 75.

  84. Nashville Tennessean, 4 February 1943.

  85. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 3 March 1943.

  86. Leonhirth, “Tennessee’s Experiment,” 177.

  87. New York Times, 23 March 1943, 7 June 1943.

  88. Leonhirth, “Tennessee’s Experiment,” 177.

  89. Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 98–105.

  90. New York Times, 26 September 1943, 27 April 1944, 11 June 1944. In the summer of 1944, its five-year mandate having expired, the War Training Service was closed.

  91. Phoebe was demoted from a CAF-12 to a CAF-11. Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  92. Exhibit “A”, Personnel File, Omlie Collection; Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 247–248.

  93. Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 134–150.

  94. Exhibit “A”; Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 165.

  95. Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 135.

  96. Ibid., 267–268.

  97. The initial LWOP was from 26 May 1947 to 25 November 1947; extensions from 26 November 1947 to 24 February 1948 and 25 February 1948 to 3 May 1948. Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  98. Memo, Omlie Collection.

  99. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 23 August 1947.

  100. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 6 December 1973, mentions an episode when a ruptured ovarian abscess required hospitalization in 1938, Omlie Collection.

  101. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 12 September 1947, Washington Times-Herald, 24 February 1948. Janette Rex, also known as Mrs. Ralph K. Rex and “Peggy” Rex, was the woman who hosted the breakfast for the women pilots at the end of the 1929 Women’s Derby in Cleveland and suggested the idea that became the Ninety-Nines.

  102. Taylor first worked with Phoebe on the manuscript in 1942; an undated later version, labeled 3rd draft, also found in Omlie Collection.

  103. She listed only the American Legion Auxiliary. Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  104. Exhibit “A,” Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  105. Wilson, Turbulence Aloft, 271–272.

  106. Personnel File, Omlie Collection; June 1951, FAA Historical Chronology, 1926–1996.

  107. New York Times, 25 August 1950.

  108. After months of protesting, the CAA called an all-day board hearing on 30 May 1952, at which the pilots protested that the change would be confusing and dangerous. They asked that the adoption be reopened, contending that in the face of political pressure, the CAA and the CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board) “the only Government agencies to whom civil aviation can turn for help in such matters—had sold civil aviation ‘down the river.’” A week later, the CAA reversed their decision, saying they were convinced that the conversion would be “an unnecessary burden and would introduce some hazard into private and c
ommercial air operations.” Two years and three months later, on 1 October 1954, aviation in the United States officially switched from the statute mile to the nautical mile. In an apparent compromise, non-airline craft, including private pilots, would be free to choose between the two measurements. New York Times, 31 May 1952, 5 June 1952, 1 October 1954.

  109. Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  110. New York Times, 31 March 1952; longer AP story in Commercial Appeal, 30 March 1952.

  Chapter 7

  1. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 11 April 1952.

  2. Scharlau, Phoebe, 128.

  3. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 7 October 1952.

  4. Scharlau, Phoebe, 128.

  5. The property was purchased from Dr. and Mrs. Kotz Allen for $22,000 cash and a mortgage of $47,625. Warranty Deed recorded in Land Deed Book A30, p. 11, Office of Chancery Clerk, Panola County, Sardis, Mississippi.

  6. A handmade rug with wings and the words Rancho Fairom is in the collection of the Memphis Pink Palace museum.

  7. Scharlau indicates Phoebe bought 10,000 head of cattle and that she invested a total of $80,000 in the property. These cannot be verified. Scharlau, Phoebe, 129.

  8. The new owner assumed Phoebe’s mortgage. Trade of property listed in Deed Book A32, p. 407, Office of Chancery Clerk, Panolo County, Sardis, and in Book 13, p. 400, Office of Chancery Clerk, Quitman County, Marks, Mississippi.

  9. Property contents listed in loan application to the Bank of Lambert, 5 October 1957, reflect modest furnishings and kitchen equipment. Deed of Trust recorded in Book 78, pp. 558–560, Office of Chancery Clerk, Quitman County, Marks, Mississippi.

  10. Laurel (Mississippi) Leader-Call, 15 November 1958.

  11. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Pancho Barnes, 29 December 1968; “Short resume,” Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

  12. Quit Claim Deed recorded Book 16, pp. 118–119, Office of Chancery Clerk, Quitman County, Marks, Mississippi.

  13. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 16 May 1962; Omlie speech, “Let’s Call a Spade a Shovel,” in Congressional Record, 87th Congress, 2nd Session, 12 June 1962, Appendix A 4325–4327.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Her dream in retrospect seems remarkably prescient. Federal Express (FedEx), headquartered at Memphis International Airport, began overnight delivery service in 1973. Since 1993, Memphis International has had the largest cargo operation of any airport in the world. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 14 February 1962.

  16. E-mail exchange with Pat Thaden Webb, 28 November 2007, 14 May 2010, 9 June 2010.

  17. What follows is the result of information extracted from news clippings and letters found in the Glenn Buffington Collection at the Ninety-Nines Museum (Buffington was a journalist who wrote frequently about women in aviation, and who during the 1960s and 1970s endeavored to contact Phoebe about various pieces he was writing), from letters found in the Omlie Collection, and the summary by Scharlau in Phoebe.

  18. “Between You and Me by Mary E.,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10 July 1967.

  19. Ibid., 24 July 1967.

  20. Amendment text found in The Silent Majority Speaks Out, Omlie Collection.

  21. St. Paul Pioneer Press, 24 July 1967.

  22. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Everett Dirksen, 27 May 1967, and Dirksen reply, 13 June 1967, originals in Dirksen Center, Pekin, Illinois, reproduced in Scharlau, Phoebe, 139–140.

  23. “Federal Education Programs,” Congress and the Nation, Vol. II, 1965–1968 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1969), 709–713.

  24. “About the Author,” The Silent Majority Speaks Out, Omlie Collection.

  25. One example is letter, Phoebe Omlie to Mrs. Martha Mitchell (wife of the attorney general), 26 April 1971, Omlie Collection.

  26. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Donald F. Graff, 19 November 1969 and Phoebe Omlie to Don Phillips, 1 November 1969, Omlie Collection.

  27. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Glenn Buffington, 24 February 1968; Letter, Lillian Fields to Glenn Buffington, 8 September 1968, Buffington Collection.

  28. Scharlau, Phoebe, 137–138.

  29. Letter, Percy McDonald to Glenn Buffington, 2 May 1969, Buffington Collection.

  30. Phoebe worked from March until May for Ruth Hoffner in Chicago. Copy of ad and records of employment in Omlie Collection.

  31. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Glenn Buffington, 4 February 1970, Buffington Collection.

  32. Letter, Glenn Buffington to Glenn Messer, 17 February 1970, Buffington Collection.

  33. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 14 January 1970.

  34. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 9 February 1970, Omlie Collection.

  35. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Glenn Buffington, 4 February 1970, Buffington Collection.

  36. Foreword, The Silent Majority Speaks Out, unpublished manuscript in Omlie Collection.

  37. Introductory, The Silent Majority Speaks Out.

  38. Ibid., 7.

  39. Ibid., 28.

  40. The Silent Majority Speaks Out, appendix.

  41. “Rough estimates of cost of production” for The Silent Majority Speaks Out.

  42. Example, Phoebe Omlie to Alan McConnell & Son, Inc., 10 March 1973; others in Omlie Collection.

  43. Letter, Donald Graff to Phoebe Omlie, 19 November 1969, Omlie Collection.

  44. See “To Publish and Distribute the Book The Silent Majority Speaks Out,” Omlie Collection.

  45. Phoebe often saved carbon copies of her letters clipped to their responses, Omlie Collection.

  46. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 26 May 1972, Omlie Collection.

  47. Letter, Philip Wendell to Phoebe Omlie, 4 October 1970, Omlie Collection.

  48. Letter, Philip Wendell to Glenn Buffington, 23 November 1970, Buffington Collection.

  49. Wendell died in 1972. In a letter to his widow, Phoebe complained that when she and Phil disagreed, “he always checked with someone else, but I lived it.” Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Margaret Wendell, 18 May 1972.

  50. Letter, Robert McComb to Bobbi Trout, 17 February 1979, Buffington Collection.

  51. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Pancho Barnes, Christmas 1972, William E. Barnes Collection (private collection shared by Barbara Schultz).

  52. Receipts in Omlie Collection.

  53. Letter, Louise Thaden to Phoebe Omlie, 2 September 1970, Omlie Collection.

  54. Text of the Liberty Amendment, first proposed in the immediate postwar period, is on the Web site www.libertyamendment.com.

  55. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 20 January 1974, Omlie Collection.

  56. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 8 September 1973. See also letter to Indiana speaker Kermit O. Burrows, 18 May 1974; letter to White House protesting a government employee campaigning for the ERA in violation of the Hatch Act, 12 June 1974. All letters in Omlie Collection.

  57. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Margaret Wendell, 18 May 1972; Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Karl Voelter, 29 December 1970, Omlie Collection.

  58. See literature and letters in Omlie Collection.

  59. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Louise Thaden, 31 August 1974, Omlie Collection.

  60. Her monthly income was $184 ($93 from Social Security and $91 from a veterans’ widows pension) or $2,208 a year. Minimum wage in 1975 was $2.10 an hour, or roughly $4,350 per year.

  61. One example was an exchange with Faulkner author Carvel Collins in 1971 asking him to try to recover a box of files and photographs she left with a friend in Memphis since deceased. He managed to recover some of the files, but no photographs were among them. Letters between Phoebe Omlie and Carvel Collins, 13 April 1971, 26 May 1971, Omlie Collection.

  62. Many letters on this issue are in the Omlie Collection.

  63. Letters, Phoebe Omlie to Glenn Buffington, 19 January 1975 and 3 February 1975, Buffington Collection.

  64. Letter, Louise Thaden to Glenn Buffington, 1 February 1975, private collection shared by Pat Thaden Webb.

  65. Memo, Dr. Jean Woerner, “to whom it may concern regarding Mrs. Phoebe J. Omlie,” 29 May 1975,
Omlie Collection.

  66. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Mr. and Mrs. John Bieschke, 23 November 1974, Omlie Collection.

  67. Copy of her Christmas letter, 29 December 1974, Omlie Collection.

  68. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Pancho Barnes, 1 January 1975 and 22 January 1975, William E. Barnes Collection.

  69. Della May Hartley-Frazier, interview with author, 12 December 2007.

  70. Letter, Jeanira Ratcliffe to Phoebe Omlie and Della May Frazier, 3 June 1975, Omlie Collection.

  71. Phoebe’s niece, Deloris Navrkal, recalled a “shouting match” between Phoebe and her brother at the funeral of Andrew Fairgrave, their father, in March 1956, which apparently was the last time the brother and sister ever spoke to each other. Author telephone interview with Navrkal, 5 November 2007. Power of Attorney drafted 18 June 1975; Last Will and Testament signed and notarized 25 June 1975, copies of both in Omlie Collection.

  72. Agreement, 23 June 1975, Omlie Collection.

  73. Memo, Dr. Woerner, “to whom it may concern,” Omlie Collection.

  74. Application to Pine Needle Court 31 May 1975 reflects her income, Omlie Collection; Hartley-Frazier interview with author, 12 December 2007.

  75. Letter, Louise Thaden to Glenn Buffington, 6 July 1975, private collection shared by Pat Thaden Webb.

  76. Indiana Death Certificate, 17 July 1975.

  77. The Memphis chapter of the Ninety-Nines assumed the cost for the minister and for her grave marker, according to Fern Mann, then treasurer of the chapter. Phoebe’s bankbook, bills, and invoices for the funeral arrangements in Omlie Collection.

  78. Hartley-Frazier interview.

  79. Author of this piece is identified by Scharlau as Margaret Moore Post. Scharlau, Phoebe, 114; obituary in Indianapolis News, 23 July 1975.

  Epilogue

  1. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 30 September 1975.

  2. Following an interview with the author in 2004, James Kacarides shared copies of all correspondence concerning the airport and tower naming activities, herein referred to as Kacarides Collection, in author’s possession.

  3. Baker allegedly convinced the city of Millington to donate the property for the airport. See letters to the editor, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 3 April 1970, 10 April 1970.