Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2019.001.011 |
Object Name |
Newspaper |
Title |
55th Anniversary of Wiley Post's Death Observed |
Collection |
Wiley Post Collection |
Creator |
Unknown |
Scope & Content |
Article describing the 55th anniversary of Post's death. The event featured Hannah Allen, widow of Thomas Allen, throwing petals down from a Cessna 172 to Wiley Post Airport. |
Date |
08/16/1990 |
Transcription |
[Top] Page 14. Thursday, August 16, 1990. The Daily Oklahoman [Right Caption] Photo of Lt. Col. Mel Reid of the Civil Air Patrol, pilot Bob Kemper an Hannah Allen, from left, prepare for a flight Wednesday in which flower petals were dropped over the grave of aviator Wiley Post. It was the 55th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Post and humorist Will Rogers. [Top Left] [[Handwriting under title which reads: "Oklahoman 8-16-90"]] 55th Anniversary Of Wiley Post’s Death Observed Men and women who remember when it seemed Wiley Post was leading an Oklahoma conquest of aviation sent a plane over his grave Wednesday to mark the 1905 crash that killed him and humorist Will Rogers. Observers of the 55th anniversary chose the widow of Thomas Allen, the first black man to fly cross-country, to throw flower petals out a Cessna 72 over Oklahoma City’s Wiley Post Airport. Schoolchildren and pilots watched. The flyover took widow Hanna Allen of Oklahoma City out over the cemetery where Post is buried, to throw more petals out into fog. The blunt theme of the anniversary of the Alaska crush was, "Does anybody remember? Does anybody care?" the event organizer said. "We had it all here 60 years ago," organizer Larry Leavitt said. "This was aviation’s homeland. We’re losing our aviation heritage. That’s what we’re trying to restore." Leavitt helped bring Civil Air Patrol pilots, officials of the Federal Aviation Administration, fliers, children from a local day-care center, a NASA representative with a spacesuit and two state political candidates to the airport for the anniversary. In Claremore, the Will Rogers Memorial unveiled A $250,000 portrait titled "The Spirit of Will Rogers" by Argentinean artist Torres Rojas. The portrait was donated to the museum by David Christner, a Florida art dealer. The 50th anniversary of Post’s death had featured a flyover by 11 T-6 trainers. Post’s brother, Gordon, and Oklahoma aviation leader Clarence Page had stood at Post’s grave then while the planes flew overhead, Leavitt said. Both men are dead now, Leavitt said. Gordon Post’s widow is in ill health, as is the Chickasha man who was the only pilot besides Post to fly the "Winnie Mae," Leavit said. "All the men who knew him are about 90 now, see," Leavitt said. Hannah Allen, 54, was born after the crash that killed Post and Rogers. She remembers her much older husband talking of the days when both he and Post were aviation pioneers. "He said that at one time they both had kind of a handicap," Hannah Allen said. "They told Wiley Post he couldn’t fly because he had lost an eye (in a 1924 oil-field accident), and they told my husband he couldn’t fly because he was black. "They just kind of encouraged each other." Among other firsts, Post developed a pressure suit for his pioneering high-altitude flights. One of the visiting children tried on the NASA spacesuit that descended from Post’s rough model, to find that the silvery sleeves hung to his socks. Will Baker, 10, knew the bare bones of the story of Post’s and Roger’s lives. "They were flying around the state, and he crashed in some state," the boy said. "And they’re going to scatter flowers around the grave." Post was a close friend of Rogers, who knew just about everybody in aviation, introduced Charles Lindbergh to his wife, and was a contemporary of Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech when they flew their first planes in Oklahoma. The Associated Press |
People |
Hannah Allen Larry Leavitt Mel Reid Thomas Allen Wiley Post Will Rogers |
Search Terms |
Anniversary Article Memorial Newspaper Hannah Allen Larry Leavitt Mel Reid Thomas Allen Wiley Post Will Rogers |