WASP Elizabeth Stavrum Lux, 43-W-8

I never had the honor of meeting WASP Elizabeth Lux, however I was able to correspond with her by email over the last few years.   I was saddened, as I know many of you WASP will be, when notified that she had passed away on June 3.

I respectfully offer the following, edited from WASP Betty Turner's "Out of the Blue and Into History"

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Elizabeth Stavrum Lux was born in Superior, Wisconsin on May 24, 1922. After moving to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, eventually the depression caused the family to move to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she graduated, with honors, from a local high school.

Elizabeth attended Oshkosh State Teachers College and then the University of Madison. Because she had promised her parents she would graduate from college, she waited until after graduation to enter WASP training. , on July 5, 1943 as a member of class 43-W-8. After graduation, Elizabeth was assigned to the Training Command as an engineering test pilot at Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama.

After the WASP were disbanded, in March of 1945 Elizabeth returned to Napier where she worked as a Link instructor until Napier was deactivated. In February of 1946, she married Captain Frank O. Lux and became an Air Force wife. The young couple went from El Paso, Texas to Camp Lee, Virginia to Salt Lake City, Utah. When Frank was assigned to Korea, Elizabeth eventually followed, moving to Japan in November, 1947.

In June, 1948, first daughter, Frances, was born, followed by 2 more daughters and 2 sons.

After loosing her husband in 1969, Elizabeth moved to Annapolis, MD and joined the Fort Meade Flying Club. She learned to sail, golf and enrolled in a program at the University of Maryland for a degree in interior design, continuing her education with courses in art and photography.

She spent the later years of her life near her children in San Diego, where she continued courses in education and joined the public health club. She died peacefully in her sleep at home in Carlsbad, California, on June 3, 2010. Elizabeth is survived by daughters Frances, Christine, and Elizabeth, and sons Stephen and Michael.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, June 19, at 2:30 p.m. at Pilgrim's Progress United Church of Christ (Congregationalist), located at 2020 Chestnut Avenue, in Carlsbad, CA 92008, Tel. (760)729-6311.