Dori Marland Martin, 43-W-8 | April 22, 2013

“I wanted to do something in the war.  I didn’t know what, but I wanted to do something...because all of my boyfriends, everybody I knew was doing something.   I didn’t just want to sit home and model or be an actress.    I tried to donate blood, and they said, ‘Well, you’re not old enough’.   Then my father told me about the WASP , and I thought, “Well, that’s perfect.  That would be perfect.  I had several boyfriends who were airline Captains.  I had excellent instruction!”

 WASP Dori Marland Martin, who traded her career as a Hollywood actress to fly for her country as a WASP, has flown her last mission. On April 22, 2013, she turned her face to the sun, smiled, and quietly slipped away.   

____

 She was born Dori Marie Jugle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 14, 1921 to Richard Marland Jugel, President of ABCO Ball Mill (a mining machinery company) and his wife, Marie Henkel Jugle.    Dori never stayed longer than two years in one school, as the family traveled back and forth from Pennsylvania to Colorado.  Between elementary and high school, she skipped three grades. Not wanting her to graduate too early, school officials suggested she be kept out of school each time she was advanced a grade.  

During her time off, Dori fell in love with horses and, at age fourteen, she became a champion rider on her horse, ‘Firebird’.  She rode in the hunting, jumping, bareback and English categories, and was  Colorado State Champion  for the ‘under eighteen’ category  for three years in a row.   Eventually, the family moved to Chicago, where Dori spent her last two years of high school,  swimming with the Lake Shore A.C. Water Ballet Team.  

After high school graduation, in August of 1940, Dori won the Catalina Swim Suits  national competition for the “Most Beautiful Figure.”  The prize included a trip to California, where she enrolled as a full time student at the Pasadena Playhouse.  She took her father’s middle name as her official stage name and became Dori Marland.   She spent two years learning the craft of acting  and working at Paramount Pictures.  During her time off,  she taught riding.  

After America was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Dori wanted to do something to help the war effort.  Like many other Hollywood starlets,  she agreed to pose for a 'pin-up picture' as a morale booster for the troops.  However, she was desperate to do more.   Her father told her about a training program for women pilots to fly for the Army Air Forces.  She immediately returned to Denver and began taking flying lessons from two boyfriends, both Captains with Continental Air Lines.  After soloing in a Luscomb, she continued building up her hours.  Once she met the requirements, she applied for the WASP training program, was interviewed in Denver,  and was accepted.   

She reported to Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas right after the Fourth of July in 1943 as a member of class 43-W-8.  After completing six months of flight training, Dori and 48 of her classmates graduated in the first ceremony held inside the new gymnasium at Avenger Field.  It was also the first time that graduates sat on the stage.  Although no band played and there was no ‘pass in review’, the graduates were the first class of WASP to wear the newly designed official Women Airforce Service Pilots silver wings.  

After graduation, Dori was sent to Douglas Army Air Field, Arizona,  the largest twin engine advanced training base in the United States.  Her jobs included engineering testing and,  as she later described it,  “going places and bringing planes,  that were wrecked or just barely making it,  back to Douglas to be repaired,  and administrative flying--flying Generals around who want to see things.” 

While at Douglas, she was sent on temporary assignment to Orlando, Florida, where she completed the officer’s training program.  Eventually, she was transferred from Douglas to Kingman, Arizona.  There, she completed the B-26 transition training and flew tow target missions for air-to-air gunnery practice.  Her last duty station was Luke Field, Arizona, where she flew single engine trainers.

After the WASP were disbanded, Dori returned to Denver and took a job modeling designer fashions.  On New Year’s Eve, she met Colonel Herbert Morgan, WWII Flying Tiger Ace, former Aide to General Chenault and the Commanding Officer at Casper, Wyoming AAB.   They were married in the Lowry AFB Chapel in Denver, Colorado in June of 1945.  Eventually, her husband became Commanding Officer at Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico, which was the largest B-29 Operational Training Unit in the United States.  From Clovis, her husband was transferred to the Pentagon, so they moved to Washington. 

Shortly afterwards, Dori returned to Denver, ending her marriage.  She then began touring with an acting company, performing at air bases in the Rocky Mountain Region.   

“I played the ingénue,  of course.  And one night, one of the key characters didn’t show up (one of the older ladies), so I took that part.  And I had an old wig and the wrinkles on my face, and I was just horrified.  Nobody looked at me.  Nobody said ‘hello’.  None of the boys paid any attention to me.  I just was really horrified, so I never played her again!  From there on, I stuck with the ingénue.”

Eventually, she moved back to  California, where she took a modelling job at I. Magnin & Co., which included modelling hats for the artists to draw for magazine ads. 

Dori's  father encouraged her to continue flying and,  in 1947,  friend Jo Stafford asked her to pilot her plane in the Cleveland Air Races.   She agreed and entered the race.  She was in the lead when the plane had engine problems and eventually quit at tree top level.   Dori survived the crash, but never raced again.   

Shortly after the race, Dori married Johnny F. Martin, Chief Test Pilot for Douglas Aircraft.  The couple moved to Muroc, California in the Mojave Desert,  where the Muroc  Dry Lake (now Edwards Air Force Base) was used for flight testing.  Eventually, they moved to Beverly Hills where they enjoyed the Hollywood life style.  The Martins built a home in Rolling Hills and started their family.   Dori became a stay-at-home mom, den mother,  and little league cheerleader for her  two young sons, Richard Joseph and Michael James.  

Eventually, she completed night school courses and earned her real estate license.  She then went to work for Wagenseller & Durst Securities Corporation,  managing high-rise office buildings in downtown LA.    When the couple  separated,  Dori and her sons moved to South Pasadena.  

After a fall, a long rehab ended Dori’s career in real estate management.  She called it the toughest time in her life--  caring for her parents, her sons and, as she described it,  she was “very, very broke.”  She pulled herself up by her bootstraps and worked her way back by working the graveyard shift at the US Post Office, sorting mail.   As she later remembered, “I’d eat lunch at three o’clock in the morning in my car in the rain.  I got through it.“ It took her six years.

 Later in her life, she began traveling, spending time with friends in Europe and the US.   On a short visit to Sun City West, Arizona, she decided to stay for a while--which turned into twenty-seven years.  Just a quick bus trip to Las Vegas, Dori loved the area, and continued to ‘enjoy the ride,’ entering and winning blackjack tournaments,  making new friends, and swimming year round. 

In 2001, Wings Across America was privileged to interview Dori at her home in Arizona.  She was a charming, warm, beautiful lady.  During the interview, when  asked what her favorite airplane was, she didn’t hesitate. 

“The B-26.  Some of the men didn’t want to fly it.  They wouldn’t fly it, but I loved it!   The reason I loved it is because it was a real airplane.  You had to fly it.  You couldn’t just sit there like somebody’s grandmother,.... The B-26 was a wonderful plane.”

Just after her service as a WASP, Dori agreed to pose for a picture.  It is fitting to include it here.  

When asked what her favorite word was, she couldn’t pick just one:   “I’d say horses, airplanes, men,  and parties--not necessarily in that order.”

From horsewoman,  to Hollywood starlet, to WASP, Dori Marland Martin was truly one-of-a-kind. Forever the ingenue,  this  actress, model, horsewoman,  and pilot was a true patriot.  She could have stayed in Hollywood and ‘acted’ her way through World War II.  Instead, she learned to fly so that she could serve her country as a WASP.    She dined at the finest Sunset Strip restaurants and lived in the hills overlooking Hollywood, she modeled mink coats and ostrich feathered hats, and she flew the B-26 bomber--nicknamed the  ‘Widowmaker.‘   Her life was a testament to patriotism, hard work, persistence,  and turning set-backs into step-ups.   When she needed to, she made her way through, and she always did it with a smile.

A ceremony celebrating Dori's life will be held at Freedom Inn, Assisted living Residence, in Sun City West, AZ, on May 15, 2013, at 9:30 a.m.   

Memorial donations may be made in Dori's honor to Wings Across America,  the National WASP WWII Museum, or to Sun Cities 4 Paws Rescue, Inc.

God bless those whose lives she touched -- and will touch.

v/r written and posted by Nancy Parrish
Based on Wings Across America’s interview

Marcia Wenzel Milner, 43-W-8 July 26, 2012

 Gertrude Marcia Wenzel Milner, 43-W-8  

October 8, 1920 - July 26, 2012

"She was a beautiful woman with chestnut hair, a rich, warm smile, and deep blue eyes that displayed brilliance of mind, tenacity and courage.  She would conquer and live her dreams.  She would climb into the heavens without fear.  She would fly.  She was born and lived as a gifted, independent, extraordinary bird - a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots).  On July 26, 2012, Gertrude marcia Wenzel Milner, 91, took her last flight home to Our Father."

  reprinted from the official obituary    

---

    Gertrude Marcia Wenzel was born on October 8, 1920 in New London, Connecticut.  Her love affair with flying began at age 12, when her father took her to an airfield in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

    While she was still in high school, she began taking flying lessons at Norwalk Airport, which was near her home.  By 1939, she had earned her private pilot’s license and a seaplane rating.  

    During World War II,  Marcia learned about the newly created Army Air Forces training program to train qualified women pilots to fly military aircraft to relieve desperately needed stateside AAF male pilots for combat.   She applied for the program, was interviewed in New York City, and was accepted to enter with class 43-8.   

    Marcia paid her way to Texas and, together with 97 other women pilots, arrived at Avenger Field to enter the training.  She was one of only 48 in her class who successfully completed the six months of training.  On December 17, 1943, they graduated and received their silver WASP wings--the first wings to include the lozenge/diamond design in the center. 

    After graduation, Marsha was assigned to Chico Army Air Field in Chico, California as an engineering test pilot.  Later she was transferred to Merced Army Air Field,  California, where she continued as an engineering test pilot. 

    Later, she was transferred from Merced to Las Vegas Army Air Field in Nevada, where she transitioned into flying B-26’s.  She was then sent to Tactical School in Orlando, Florida, for pressure tank tests, gas warfare, and jungle survival school. During her service as a WASP, she flew the PT-19, BT-13, AT-6, UC-78, B-26 and  BT-17 co-pilot.

    After the WASP were deactivated on 20 December 1944,   Marsha worked as a flight instructor in Albany, New York and ferried aircraft for Reconstruction Finance Corporation.  She continued flying in her BT-13 and later her Curtiss Fledgling.  She  maintained her seaplane rating for a Cessna on floats.

    Marcia married Philip H. Milner Sr., a business banker.  Marcia and Philip were married for over 40 years,  prior to his passing in 1990.  They had one son, Philip.

    In recognition of their service during WWII, Marcia and her WASP peers  were  honored by the United States Congress in 2010 with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress can bestow on civilians.

    Marcia was a resident of Essex, Conn,  Bedford, N.Y, and Ocean Reef, Key Largo, Fla.  She then lived for over 47 years in Weekapaug, R.I.  

    Marcia was beloved by her family and is survived by her son, Philip H. Milner Jr. and wife, Pamela Milner, Newport Beach, Calif.; her granddaughter, Jessica Milner, Newport Beach, Calif.; her grandson, John Milner and wife,  Kristin Milner; her great-granddaughters, Amanda and Clara Milner, Corona, Calif.; and her brother, Clarence "Bill" Wenzel, Huddleston, Va. 

    A memorial service was held on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012, at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Church, Westerly,  with interment in the adjacent Memorial Garden.

    Memorial donations may be made in Marcia’s  honor to Wings Across America, 1620 S. 9th St., Waco, Texas, 76706  or the National WASP WWII Museum, P.O. Box 456, Sweetwater, Texas, 79556.

v/r posted by Nancy Parrish 

from WASP Betty Turner’s “Out of the Blue and Into History” and the official obituary

WASP Ruth Humphryes Brown, 43-W-8

"I heard about the (WASP) program--and all the gals were trying to do something for the war effort.  It was either that or Bundles for Britain  and I decided flying sounded a little more exciting  than knitting..."

  Ruth Brown from her interview: Wings Across America

WASP RUTH HUMPHREYS BROWN photo: Wings Across America.org

WWII Pilot, Philanthropist, Aspen 
Matriarch Ruth Brown dies at 90
________

Ruth Humphreys Brown, an Aspen community leader since the ski resort’s post-war founding and wife to Aspen Ski Corp. president D.R.C. Brown, died Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010 in her Aspen home.

Brown, for whom “Ruthie’s Run” on Aspen Mountain was named, had celebrated her 90th birthday in November.

She is remembered as an Aspen matriarch who helped guide the town through its modern history with quiet strength, and as a devoted mother and neighbor with an outsized aptitude for both adventure and compassion.

“She lived in the shadow of my father,” her daughter Ruth recalled Sunday. “But what people didn’t realize was that she was much tougher than he was. Her strength was doing things and leading in such an unassuming way. She was quietly, in her way, able to lead behind the scenes.”

Born Ruth Boettcher Humphreys on Nov 11, 1921 to the prominent A.E. Humphreys family of Denver,  she grew up surrounded by the beautiful mountains of Colorado, steeped in the history of Colorado’s 19th century mining, oil and manufacturing industries and her father's love of aviation. 

A.E. Humphreys served as a Marine pilot in World War I, and, once he returned from the war, he bought one of the first passenger airplanes: a Fokker single engine.  Later, he bought a Tri-motor Beach.   Young Ruth grew up around airplanes.  However, her early experiences were only as a passenger. 

Ruth attended Kent School in Denver and later Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut and Finch College in New York City. 

In 1943, at 22, determined to help her country during World War II, she heard about the Army Air Forces Women's Flying training program.   Once she learned the requirements for acceptance, she decided it was time to learn to fly, and immediately began taking flying lessons.  Eventually, she completing the 35 required hours, applied and was accepted into the Women Airforce Service Pilots program, class 43-W-8, leaving her beautiful mountains to travel to Avenger Field in the middle of West Texas. It was there that Ruth, along with 47 other young women pilots, completed training and earned her WASP wings on December 17, 1943. 

After graduation, Ruth was stationed at Childress Army Air Base, Texas, where she trained bombardiers in AT-11's and later was stationed at Harlingen, Texas, where she flew as a B-26 tow target pilot, training gunners for combat.  Her last assignment was to March Field, California, where she was stationed when the WASP were disbanded on December 20, 1944.  From California, Ruth paid her way back to Colorado. 

After the war, Ruth became very interested in skiing and began spending time in Aspen with a cadre of Denver friends who were interested in creating a ski area. Among them was D.R.C. Brown, whom she married in 1947, the same year he founded the Aspen Skiing Corp. and marked the rebirth of the little-known mining town as a premier international resort destination.

“She was brought here by the whole ‘Aspen Idea,’” daughter Ruth Brown said, referring to the local “mind, body, spirit” credo.

Along with the founding families Paepckes and Pabsts, the Browns were present at the creation of Aspen as a modern utopia for the fulfillment of mind, body and spirit. They stewarded its growth as a peaceful mountain community, a world-renowned intellectual and cultural hub, and a world-class ski resort.

“She liked the sophistication and how diverse it could be,” Ruth said. “But she also liked the really down-home, grassroots attitude that Aspen was built on.”

When Brown moved to Aspen, she bought a mining shack on Hyman Avenue for $200, painted it pink and transformed it into a sort of social salon — known as “The Pink House” — where cowboys could, and did, mix easily with movie stars.

The Browns had five children together, and raised them on their ranch in Carbondale. Along with skiing and hiking, her hobbies included racing cars and riding horses. Ruth recalled her mother taming a large black gelding, which nobody else could handle.   “She would take us riding and lope out in front of us on this fiery, high strung horse as we all hung on to keep up with her,” she said.

“She really appreciated the growing of the ski industry and the elements making Aspen a broader, worldly resort,” Ruth recalled. “She had a harder time with the out-of-scale wealth that came in with it — and the people who didn’t appreciate the whole history of Aspen. She wanted people to come here who would appreciate it and try to be a part of the community, rather than bringing their city attitudes in.”

KNCB Moore, a longtime family friend, recalled taking a Colorado River trip with the Browns years ago. D.R.C. fell and broke his ribs in Cataract Canyon. “Ruthie had to row their 10-man raft, a very heavy, old World War II surplus,” Moore said. “I would run the rough white water stretches for her after I had kayaked through them.”

Moore also has found memories of the Brown's weekend parties at their Wagon Wheel Ranch in southern Colorado, which remains in their family. One such gathering included Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.

“Ruthie Brown was a kind, generous and strong woman who made history and many of my Aspen memories. She will be missed,” Moore said.

In 1959, Brown established the Ruth H. Brown Foundation, and began funneling her time and money into nonprofits and causes close to home and to her heart.  She was a patron of the arts as well as a participant in workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village.   Her philanthropic efforts included founding the Blind Outdoor Leisure Development program, which taught the blind how to downhill ski and the first expansion of Outward Bound’s programs to America. 

Her daughter recalled playing on the Outward Bound rope courses in Marble as her mother often met with the growing organization’s brass. She successfully championed the expansion of its programs to women and as an outreach to at-risk inner-city youths.

“That was a large contribution to this country,” Ruth said.

Brown held a prominent place in the growing ski town’s ruling class, but she kept herself grounded within the community of year-round locals behind the glamour of the resort. Among her proudest achievements was founding the Aspen Recovery Unit, the town’s first official substance abuse treatment resource center. Brought up by parents who struggled with alcoholism, Brown converted a local home into a hub to help others like them in Aspen.

Family photo via Aspen Daily News

She spearheaded the construction of an ice rink across from the Pink House, which eventually became the Aspen Ice Garden and the base for Aspen’s now-fertile youth hockey and figure skating programs.

Those and other commitments, including raising her children, took her out of the pilot’s seat; she didn’t fly planes after her World War II service. But D.R.C. kept flying and she kept co-piloting. The family built a crude landing strip and kept a prop plane on their Carbondale ranch, taking sightseeing trips — often between there and another family ranch in Utah. Ruth recalled her mother taking the family station wagon out to the airfield and illuminating it with its headlights, to guide DRC in for nighttime landings.

Longtime friend, Sue Smedstad remembered: "Ruth Brown was as comfortable at a cocktail party for well-heeled directors of the Aspen Ski Corp. as she was puttering around the ranch.  This was a woman of elegance and quintessential taste, Yet she could raft a river and get down and dirty with the best of them." 

The wide, fast and often sun-drenched “Ruthie’s Run” on Aspen Mountain serves as a sort of living memorial to the departed grand dame, along with the chairlift and on-mountain restaurant also named for her. Ruth recalled ski days on the mountain with her four siblings and parents — and the peace of traditionally schussing down Ruthie’s with her mother at the end of a long day on the slopes.

“It was always our afternoon run,” she recalled. “It was special and really fun, to take one last run down the mountain together on Ruthie’s in the setting sun.”

When D.R.C. retired in 1979, he and Ruth began spending some time — and, in recent years, most winters — in Arizona.  They were married for more than six decades, until his passing in 2008. When he died, Ruth and longtime friend John McBride flew over their old Carbondale ranch and spread his ashes there.

In 1995, Ruth was inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame.  On March 10, 2010, she, along with her WASP peers, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, highest award Congress can bestow on a civilian.

Survivors include five children and their spouses, Darcey Brown of Moab, Utah, Boots Brown of Hesperus, Colo., Lorni Cochran of Brattelboro, Vt, Charla Brown of Creede and Ruthie Brown, of Aspen; three stepchildren, Marti Garvey of Salida, Dave Brown of Denver and Scott Brown of Grand Junction; seven grandchildren and a sister-in-law, Ruth Perry of Carbondale, Colo. 

The Brown family is planning a memorial service for Ruth on Jan. 22 at the Aspen Institute’s Paepcke Auditorium. This summer, they are planning another service at her family’s historic home in Creede.

When asked how her mom will be remembered, her daughter Darcey Brown said, “Almost everybody would mention her generosity. She helped family and friends and even strangers.” (quoted from Aspen Times Article)

“In the end,” her daughter Ruth said, “the most important thing in her life was her family. She was the glue that held us all together. She was a remarkable woman.”

_____________

Ruth’s maternal grandfather was Charles Boettcher who, between 1900 and 1905. helped organize the Great Western Sugar Company, the Ideal Cement Company, Western Packing Company, Capitol Life Insurance Company and several real estate and investment firms.

He and his son, Claude, established the Boettcher Foundation in 1937, and family members, including Ruth Humphreys, have continued to support its many philanthropic interests.

Ruth’s paternal grandfather and father were involved in mining, oil, and manufacturing interests. Her grandfather was known as the “king of the wildcatters” and had interests throughout the US. Ruth’s father was President of the Humphreys Gold Corporation, Humphreys Investments, Humphreys Mining and Engineering, and the Humphreys Phosphate Company.

In 1922, AE Humphreys senior founded the Humphreys Foundation. In the early 1920s, Humphreys’ mining interests had taken him to Creede, Colo., where he built a summer mountain retreat that remains an important gathering place for generations of family and friends.

_________________

*Article information respectfully compiled from

Wings Across America interview

Aspen Daily News article by Andrew Travers, Monday, January 3, 2011

 Aspen Times, article by Scott Condon,  January 1, 2011

Online obituaries posted in Monte Vista Journal, Glenwood Springs Post Independant

Additional article:

 http://wings1944.blogspot.com/2010/04/aspen-pioneer-pilots-finally-honored.html

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"

______________

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.

WASP MAE BALL PIETZ BEHREND, 43-W-8

Born on May 3, 1920, in Clintonville, WI, May Ball Pietz Behrend was quickly introduced to adventure by her father at his airfield near Sturgeon Bay, where his musical vaudeville act often entertained at early air shows. Later, after her parents moved to the Quad Cities, May enrolled at Augustana College.  Before morning classes, her father drove May to the Moline, IL airport for flying lessons, which soon earned her an opportunity to enter the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX, where she flew many planes including a B-24 after graduation. 

May was then stationed at Scott Field where she flew AT-6s, and DC-3s while radio operators trained on her flights. 

During college days, May helped earn her tuition by dancing with the Dot Carlson's Ballet Jubilesta group who entertained at state fairs and theatres. Dancing and music, especially jazz, remained passions throughout her life. 

During May's marriage to Vernon Pietz, she enrolled her three children at National College of Education (National Lewis) while she was earning a Masters Degree in Education. Her first teaching job was at Golf Junior High School, Skokie, IL, where she became interested in film. This led her to further studies at Columbia College and a Masters Degree of Fine Arts in Film. Next, she taught at Niles North High School, also in Skokie, and expanded the filmmaking and film appreciation courses with some literature classes before retiring in 1985. In 1991 May became director of Facets Chicago International Children's Film Festival, later writing film reviews, directing part of the Media Arts Camp and also the selection jury at Facets. Other passions May pursued included sailing out of Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago and the North Channel Yacht Club in Ontario, Canada. Also, as an enthusiastic student at Alliance Francais, May often traveled to France and studied there while pursuing her love of good wine and fashion. 

After 88 years of joie de vivre, May "touched down" with a "soft landing" on July 27, 2008, having spent important parts of her journey with her husband of 24 years, Jack Behrend; daughter, Linda Theede; sons, David and Douglas Pietz; grandchildren, Jonathan Pietz and Carolina Gier; sister, June
Horowitz; many friends; and cat, Genoa.

 A celebration of May's life can be made to one of her favorite organizations including: Doctors Without Borders, NARAL, Wellstone Action Fund and ACLU.
Published in the Chicago Tribune on 8/1/2008

WASP Elvira Griggs Cardin, 43-W-8

ELVIRA GIIGGS CARDIN, LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA.

 August 26th 1913-November 14th 2008 

Elvira Griggs Cardin passed away Friday, Feb 14th. She was 95. Elvira "Baby" Griggs was born in Tacoma, WA., in 1913, the youngest of four children. Her future husband, Pat, was a year older, and lived just a block away. They were married in 1947, moved to CA., and lived in Lafayette for the next 60 years. Friday morning was warm and beautiful and Elvira had breakfast on her patio surrounded by the garden she loved, and slipped away by noon. This was an easy and peaceful transition. Elvira was a spirited and accomplished woman. She was an excellent equestrian, a Women's Air Service Pilot in WWII with over 2000 hours of flight time in heavy bombers, an enthusiastic supporter of the Lindsay Museum and a devoted wife and mother. As a young girl riding her favorite pony named Tony, she famously walked him through the front door of her parent's house into their living room to protect him from the teasing of the neighborhood boys. A WASP pilot, she loved flying the responsive AT-6 trainers and twin-engine B-26 bombers, but pronounced the four-engine B-17s "slow and ponderous." A number of her total flying hours came on trips between the base at Sweetwater and Corpus Christi on the Gulf. The base commander loved fresh crab, and Elvira was always ready to fly to the coast and return with his delicacy strapped into the front cockpit of her AT-6. Elvira and Pat had two sons, Kim and Chris. Their younger son, Chris, died in a plane crash in 1983, and Pat passed away earlier this year in February. Elvira is survived by her elder son Kim, and her adored granddaughter, Jessica. Gifts in Elvira's memory would be gratefully received by the Lindsay Museum in Walnut Creek. There will be a casual memorial gathering celebrating the life and love of Elvira and Pat on Nov. 29th from 4pm-6 pm at the Orinda Country Club. You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be -I had a mother who read to me. -- Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954)

*reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle  Nov. 21, 2008

+++++++++++++++++

"I was born on August 26, 1913, in Tacoma, Washington.

After attending high school at Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut, I attended Pomona College in California and graduated from the University of Washington in 1935, majoring in French. After graduation, I went to New York City and worked for Mademoiselle magazine. In 1937, I traveled to Berlin, Germany then to France.

I started to fly and get into the WASP. At that time no civilians could fly near the Coast. I moved to eastern Washington and flew to get 100 hours and went into the WASP--class 43-8.

After graduation, I was stationed at Dodge City Army Air Base, Dodge City, Kansas, at a B-26 school. I towed targets in the B-26, then to Hondo Army Air Base in Hondo, Texas, and to Pueblo Army Air Base, Pueblo, Colorado. I flew other planes like the AT-17, AT-6.

In 1947, I married a man I had known all my life, Pat Cardin, and we moved to Lafayette, California. We had two sons, Kim and Christopher.  We have lived in the sam house for 53 years. One of our sons lives in Layafette with our only granddaughter, jessica, age 13, who plays soccer, basketball, rides horseback and is a straight "A" student. She also is in 4H and takes care of six rabbits. I am on the board of the Oakland Museum and on the board of Lindsey Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, California.

I still play tennis, enjoy bridge, and attend the San Francisco Symphony, but most of all; I am interested in my garden."from p. 256 "Out of the Blue and Into History" by WASP Betty Stagg Turner.

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