Katherine Willinger, 44-W-8 Aug. 8, 2013

“As a youngster, I was fascinated by the freedom

and excitement of flying”

WASP Katherine Willinger

Katherine Willinger was born in The Bronx, NYC, on July 12, 1919 and spent much of her life in the city she loved.

In 1943, she learned of the experimental flying training program for women pilots, applied, and became one of 108 young women who paid their way to Sweetwater, Texas to enter the training class of 44-W-8 to become Women Airforce Service Pilots.     

After successfully completing over seven months of Army Air Force flight training, she and 48 classmates graduated in October of 1944 and received their silver WASP wings.  They were then stationed at different air fields and air bases across America.   

Katherine was stationed at Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas.  At Goodfellow she flew At-6’s, BT-13’s and PT-19’s as part of  the flight training given the aviation cadets stationed at the 2533rd Base Unit. 

On 20 December 1944, the WASP were disbanded.     As Katherine later wrote, “After deactivation, I returned home, put flying behind me, and went into the world of business.”  She tackled her new challenges just as she had those as a WASP,  becoming the first woman president in the business of manufacturing photograph record albums.

Her client list included Angel Records, Capitol Records and Decca, among others.  She considered the work challenging,  as well as rewarding.   In 1970,  Katherine sold her company and traveled the world.

When she returned home,  she began designing and making hardwood furniture, eventually expanding her hobbies to include calligraphy, sculpting.  and stained glass.   She also took courses at Fordham University and the New School University In Liberal Arts.  

Katherine suffered through several bouts with cancer (non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1983, and colon cancer in 1992).  After overcoming those challenges,  she spent her last several decades enjoying the exciting lifestyle in Manhattan to the fullest.  She was a faithful supporter of the arts and was a regular at theatres, museums, concerts,  and operas around New York City.  

In 2010, Katherine and her sister Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were honored to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the Congress can award,  for their pioneering service as the first women in history to fly America’s military aircraft. 

Katherine died in her beloved New York City on August 8, 2013.   She was predeceased by her parents, Max and Minnie (Weinstein) Willinger, brother Henry Willinger and sister Miriam Epstein (Julius). 

She is survived by her long-term partner and friend Theresa Falgiatore, nephews Allan Willinger (Jo Schlesinger), Richard Willinger and Leonard Epstein (Jan), nieces Judith Willinger (Robert Luke) and Dr. Adele Strominger (Norman), and sister-in-law Miriam Willinger. 

God bless those whose lives she touched in so many wonderful ways.

Respectfully posted by Nancy Parrish

sources:

“Out of the Blue and Into History,” by WASP Betty Turner, p. 479.

NYTimes Obituary  

Joan Gough Frost, 44-W-8 Sept.3, 2012

Joan Gough Frost, Women Airforce Service Pilots, Class 44-W-8, took her final flight on Labor Day, September 3, 2012 in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania. Joan was a fabulously fun and loving mother, grandmother and beloved wife of the late John L. Frost.

Joan was born on October 1, 1924 in New York City; her family moved to Atlantic Beach, Long Island when she was five years old. Even at that early age, she was captivated by the concept of flight:

            “As I sat in the sand at the beach, I watched the seagulls, how they spread their    wings and rode the air currents, and their landings on the water… I started        thinking how wonderful it would be up there with them in the sky looking down on Mother Earth and feeling the freedom of flight.”

Joan was fifteen when she started to fly and after high school she went to Hofstra College to complete ground school requirements.  At the age of 18 she was accepted into 44-W-7 along with her friends Mimi Keir and Bonnie Dorsey.   Ironically, all three friends ended up in 44-W-8.   Upon graduation from Army Air Forces Flight training at Avenger Field, Joan was stationed at Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas, where she flight tested and ferried airplanes. 

When the WASP disbanded, Joan continued to transport small airplanes that were being bought and sold after the war.  During that time, "My friend and flying buddy, Scotty Bradley, came home with me and never left.  She met my brother who had just come back from the Pacific and they were married.  That left me without my flying buddy.”

In the years that followed, Joan taught ballroom dancing at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and worked as an Account Executive at Rubin H Donnelly Company.  She married the love of her life, John L "Jack" Frost  and they raised their family in Pennsylvania., Joan continued  to be heavily involved with the WASPs during the 1970’s as they lobbyed Congress for recognition.  In addition, Joan worked tirelessly for a number of charities and and proudly received The Boy Scout Award from President Ronald Reagan.

Her three children survive Joan:  Lee-Ann, Stephen and Ginny.  Grandchildren: John, Daniel, Christopher and Michaela Frost, Meredith and Maddie Frost, and Jack, Carina and Brenna Corry.  Joan is also survived by her sister, Patricia Gough, and her sister-in-law, Scotty Gough, who resides in Maryland with daughters Connie and Joan Gough.  

The words of Barbara Shaw Jameson capture Joan's spirit:

Capture a sunset,
Ride with the wind
Taste Freedom
only the eagle has known

For yours is the freedom
of knowing
you have flown.

________________

respectfully posted as written by Joan's daughter, Lee-Ann

WASP Marguerite Ty Hughes Killen, 44-W-8

"When I was nine years old, a barnstormer in a Jenny... sold rides... being the last to go up, my brother Mike and I got a ride for the price of one, $5. That ride proved to completely change our lives."     
WASP Ty Killen

On January 17, 2011, WASP Marguerite "Ty" Hughes Killen quietly took her final flight, surrounded by her loving family.

__________________

She was born May 16, 1924 in Superior, Arizona, about an hour east of Phoenix, but grew up in Wellton, near the border, in southwest Arizona. It was in this small town that young Ty fell in love with flying at age 9.

While Ty was in high school, a CPT program (Civilian Pilot Training) began at Fly Field nearby. A family friend was hired as a flight and ground school instructor and, once he told the young girl that there were jobs available, Ty immediately went to work.

"I started working after school and weekends, gassing planes, sweeping hangers, pushing planes in and out of the hangers, checking gas levels, servicing planes and cleaning rest rooms. My pay was dual flight instruction wherever the instructor could sandwich me into his busy schedule. At night, I attended ground school with the CPT trainees. My world was at Fly-in Field after school until dark, and weekends from sunup until dusk."

Ty went on to pass her flight tests and became one of the first women to get a commercial and flight instructor rating--on her 18th birthday.
 

Ty Killen, 1994 from "WASPs" by Vera S. Williams

Ty enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson in September of 1942. She paid for her education by instructing at Gilpen Airlines, after school and weekends. While continuing her studies, she heard a radio announcement about the women pilot's training program beginning in Texas. Although she met all the requirements, she was only 18, and the minimum age limit at the time was 21.

In August of 1943, the age limit for the WASP training program was lowered to 18 1/2. She immediately called Jacqueline Cochran's office and set up an interview. After passing all the requirements and the Army physical, Ty was accepted into the class of 44-8. November 1, 1943, Ty married her childhood sweetheart, B-24 pilot Lt. Fred Hughes, who was soon sent overseas.

In March of 1944, Ty left her home in Arizona and paid her way to Texas. On March 13, she and 107 other young women pilots, raised their right hands, took the military oath and entered Army Air Force flight training.

In July, while she was still in flight training in Texas, Ty's husband was killed half a world away, flying over the Himalayas. Determined to serve her country, she stayed in training, using her talent for drawing to lift the spirits of her classmates. After 7 months, she passed her final check rides and exams, and graduated on October 16, 1944, along with 48 classmates. After graduation, Ty was sent to Childress Bombardier School in Childress, Texas, where she flew the AT-11, AT-6 and BT-13, training male students to become bombardiers for combat.

On December 20, 1944, when the WASP were officially deactivated, Ty paid her way back to Tucson, returning to work as an instructor and enrolling in the University of Arizona. In 1948, she graduated from college and remarried. Soon, the young couple started their family, eventually having 1 son: Jim, and 3 daughters: Talley, Kelly and Shauna.

In 1990, Ty wrote about her life in "Out of the Blue and Into History" by WASP Betty Turner. In her own words, she described herself as "a happy grandmother of 8," continuing, "I treasure my love and involvement with family, flying, painting, gardening, teaching, and enjoying the continual blessings of an active full life. But the WASP are still there! We live in the greatest country in the world. And we helped to realize this...together."

On March 10, 2010, when the WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Ty was in the audience, dressed in her WASP uniform, sitting on the back row. She was smiling... and, as she always did, she was glowing from the inside out.
___________

I was honored to meet Ty in 1994 at the WASP Convention. My dad passed away 6 months earlier and I had convinced mom that it was important for her to attend. It was a tough and challenging time. Mom and Ty had never met, yet immediately, there was a beautiful connection. Never had I met anyone so instantly giving and kind.

If a life can be measured by the caring, love and passion for living shared with others, then Ty Killen's life is rich indeed. Her daughter, Kelly called her an angel. Indeed she was...and is.

God bless her family and all those whose lives she touched and who will always remember her--for her kindness and her loving spirit.

V/R posted by Nancy Parrish
Jan. 23, 2011

OFFICIAL INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED TO THIS POST WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE.

WASP EMILY METZ GILE, 44-W-8

Martha Emily Metz Gile took her last flight on November 18, 2008.

Born to Fred Christian Metz and Martha Julia Fritz Metz on March 4, 1925. She was an aviator and native of Miami, FL.

Emily served with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II, class of 44-W-8.

Emily Gile' s childhood and adolescence in Miami, Florida and her family' s business in cows, chickens and turkeys during the Great Depression when her father was unable to find work in accounting.

Determined to become a WASP, Gile was initially turned away because of her age, but earned her private license while working at the Army Air Corp base . On the day she turned eighteen and a half, she hopped a military flight bound to Washington DC and was escorted to be interviewed at the Pentagon with Jacqueline Cochran who admitted her into the program.

Gile completed her training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX graduating Oct. 18th, 1944. She was then was stationed at Greenwood, Mississippi and ferried planes to different bases and tested repaired planes before they entered back into service. The WASP were deactivated in December of 1944.

Emily Metz Gile then married and served in the Air Force Reserves until she became pregnant with her son. She then attended Concordia River Forest College to become a teacher for elementary children in parochial schools. Then Gile received her Masters in reading education at Appalachian State University. Gile then moved Hillsville, VA to be a reading specialist for Carroll County Schools.

After her retirement from teaching she volunteered in so many ways. She was involved with many organizations including the American Association for Retired Persons serving as chairman for the retired teachers for years. Emily Gile was also a member of the General Federation of Women' s Clubs, Carroll County Retired Teachers, American Legion and the American Cancer Society serving as relay Captain for many years.

She also believed that the children of Carroll Co. needed the opportunity to experience flight so she began the Young Eagles' Program Local EAA chapter.

Emily Gile leaves her two children: one son, Emory Bearden of Hillsville, VA; one daughter and son-in-law, Larry and Martha Musser and her three grandchildren, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Sarah Musser of Winston-Salem, NC.

Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, November 22, 2008 at Vaughan-Guynn-McGrady Chapel at 2 p.m. with Dr. Marva Dawn officiating. Military Rites will be conducted by the Hillsville V.F.W. Post 1115. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday, November 21, 2008 from 6 until 8 p.m. Burial will be in Quantico National Cemetery on Friday, November 28, 2008 at 2 p.m. Donations maybe made to W.A.S.P. Women Endowment Fund T.W.U. P.O. Box 425528 Denton, TX 76204, or the local EAA Chapter Young Eagles Program, c/o Shirley Steele, 681 Mt. Zion Road, Woodlawn, VA 24381. 

A guestbook is available online by visiting http://www.vaughanguynnandmcgrady. com. Vaughan-Guynn-McGrady Chapel is serving the family.

Published in the Winston-Salem Journal from 11/21/2008 - 11/22/2008