Norma J. "Penny" Hall Halberg, 44-W-6 | May 12, 2016

"I pumped gas, made sandwiches, served beer and soft drinks, and worked on planes.  I got my meals and my room--an old army cot in an old shack; I usually took it outside and slept under the stars.  The 'airport' consisted of a very rough strip in the desert with a couple of rundown hangars. The CAA eventually shut it down until the airstrip was cleared of borders and smoothed into some semblance of a proper runway."  Penny Halberg

Born in Kansas City, MO on April 25, 1923, Norma Penny Hall  grew up in Los Angeles, CA. Just as little boys grew up wanting to be pilots, so did Penny. 

She started flying in early 1943, working a 48 hour week in LA.  Because civilian aircraft were not allowed to fly within 100 miles of the coast, she traveled 'inland'  to to the airport in Blythe, California, to take flying lessons on the weekends.  Eventually, she quit her job and moved to the airport, which was nothing more than a wide spot in the desert. Penny pumped gas, made sandwiches, served beer, and worked on airplanes with her meals and room as part of her pay.   Her hard work paid for one hour of flying time a day.

After earning the required 35 hours and passing the initial interview and tests, Penny, along with 135 other young women pilots, was accepted into the Women’s Flying Training Program as a member of class 44-6.  She arrived at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX in January of 1944, during one of the worst snowstorms in west Texas history.   After completing seven months of Army Air Force flight training, she and 71 classmates, received their silver wings on August 4, 1944.  After graduation, Penny  was assigned to Gardener Field Taft, CA. where she flew BT-13's and PT-17's  as an engineering test pilot. She also flew ferry missions, including an unforgettable trip from California to St. Augustine, FL. with 30 open cockpit Stearmans in early December. 

After the WASPs were disbanded in late December 1944, Penny served as an air controller in Santa Barbara till the war ended, and then flew aircraft from the factories to dealers around the USA. Seeking something different, she found a job in Saudi Arabia as a payroll clerk and worked her way up to being the highest paid female in the corporation. However, she was still paid less than her male peers. Penny met and married a petroleum engineer, with whom she had 3 sons: Brad, Steve, and Scott Houghton. Later assignments took the family to Indonesia and East Pakistan—now Bangladesh.

On moving back to the states, she became a court reporter for the Superior Court, District of Columbia. Upon retirement, she married her husband, Paul Halberg, an ex-Navy Pilot and VP for Magnavox on March 9, 1985. Penny joined Paul in Fort Wayne, IN where she became an enthusiastic fundraiser for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra. Penny and Paul moved to Hammock Dunes, Palm Coast, FL in 1994 and were active members of the club until 2004. 

Penny enjoyed water and snow skiing, golf, travelling, was a lifelong bridge enthusiast, and flew over most of the USA with her husband in a high performance plane he built from a kit. She will be remembered for her loving nature and her service for our country.

On May 12, 2016, Norma J. "Penny" Halberg, 93, passed away.  This remarkable, generous, kind, spirited WASP is now flying higher than she's ever flown before. 

Penny is survived by her husband Paul; by her sons: Brad, Steve, and Scott; plus daughters-in-law Barbara, Rose, and Cathy; and 3 grandchildren.

Interment is scheduled at Arlington National Cemetery for Monday, August 1, 2016.

Arrangements are under the careful direction of Lohman Funeral Home Palm Coast.

______

We were fortunate to meet Penny at her beautiful home in Palm Coast, Florida in April of 2003.  She made us feel right at home.  She was welcoming, warm and generous.  Her story of determination, love, commitment and patriotism was and still is inspirational.  She gave up the comfort of home to sleep in the back of a run down airport shack, sweeping floors and pumping gas in order to learn how to fly...and her gentle persistence and determination carried her throughout her lifetime.   We were honored to have known her and our prayers are with her husband, Paul, and her sons and families.  Those who knew Penny already know how extraordinary she was.  May God bless you all.

Respectfully posted by Nancy Parrish 

with information from Penny's Wings Across America interview and the original obituary, published in Fort Wayne Newspapers.
Photos added by WAA.

Tex Amanda Brown Meachem, 43-W-7 July 5, 2012

Tex Amanda (Brown) Meachem

I believe what my mother always told me, "Honey, you can do anything you want to do.
You just have to want to do it and go for it!"   WASP Tex Meachem

Tex Meachem took off on her final flight on July 5th in the care of Vitas Hospice of Florida at John Knox Village, in Pompano Beach, Florida. She was 94 years old.

Tex Amanda Brown, named after her grandmothers, “Texanna” and “Amanda,” was born in Tallahassee, Florida on Feb 4, 1918.  A few months later, the young family moved to Winter Garden, where Tex completed all her schooling, graduating as the Salutatorian from Lakeview High School. 

After loosing her father to a heart attack when she was 16, Tex changed her college plans to be close to home, entering Florida State Collage for Women in Winter Garden.  She majored in Economics and worked at the State of Florida Department of Education.  She graduated with her degree and a teaching certificate and went to work full time for the State.

In 1939,  she was hired by the Dean of the Business Administration College at University of Florida. While working for the Dean, Tex signed up for the CPT program and learned to fly in order to cut her 2 hr. travel time to the beach. Soon after joining a flying club and getting her license, she volunteered to do the books for the Civil Air Patrol in Sarasota, Florida, in exchange for flying time.  Tex spent a year in Sarasota,  flying active duty, looking for submarines in the Gulf of Mexico.

While flying with the CAP,  Tex learned of the experimental women’s flying training program. She applied and was accepted into the class of 43-7 along with 101 other young women pilots. She paid her way to Avenger Field to join the training program.  Only 59 of the women graduated, earning their silver wings on November 13, 1943.

Tex was sent to Hondo Army Air Base as part of the  Training Command—Navigation school at Hondo, Texas.  There, her mission included flying C-45’s with navigation students plotting the courses and flying co-pilot on C-60’s.  While at Hondo, Tex fell in love with navigation instructor, John Meachem.  As she described their courtship: "We danced a thousand miles to 'Begin the Beguine'."

After five months at Hondo, she was transferred to the ferry command.  She traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, where she was kept busy, ferrying trainers to bases all over the US as well as flying salvage flights with war weary Piper Cubs. 

 After months of non-stop ferrying, Tex gave up flying to marry John Meachem, the man she described as 'the love of her life, on July 14, 1944.  After the war, they settled in Manilus, New York where  their growing family eventually included three daughters.  

Once her third daughter started school, Tex enrolled in Syracuse University, where she earned a Masters in Library Science.  After graduating, she  worked as a high school librarian in the East Syracuse-Minoa School District until her retirement in the late 70s.  While in Manilus, Tex remained very active in the Christ Episcopal Church.

In 1979, when John and Tex retired, they moved to Mount Dora, Florida, 26 miles northwest of Orlando and 25 miles from where she grew up. The Florida girl had come home.   She and John were married 47 1/2 years and had 12 1/2 years of retirement before he passed away in 1991.

In 2001, Tex moved to John Knox Village in Pompano Beach, to be closer to her daughter. She was very active in her community, serving as a Resident Senator, and working on the Activities Committee and the Food Committee. She particularly enjoyed serving as a mentor to new residents when they first arrived at JKV, helping them to get acclimated, meet people, and discover the variety of activities available to them.

In March, 2010, when the WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of their service to the country, Tex was present for all of the ceremonies.  A few weeks later she was given the opportunity to fly once again in an AT-6 Texan, which had been her favorite plane to fly as a WASP.

Tex is survived by two daughters, Margaret Josephine of Buffalo, NY, and Lucinda Brown (Sutton) of Coconut Creek, Florida, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Tex was preceded in death by her husband John in 1991 and youngest daughter, Melissa Donne (Corvez) , 1994.

 

Wings Across America was honored to interview Tex on May 3, 2003 in her Florida condo. It marked Wings Across America's  100^th Interview.  

 What a joy to listen to Tex describe her colorful life, her love of flying and her love of living life to its fullest.  Although I remember the entire interview,  a few things stand out: 

• Her grandfather had the best slopped hogs in the county
• She was the first girl in her high school to take physics
• Her first flight instructor was a cattle rustler
• She was a Southern Baptist (who became an Episcopalian) who loved to dance,
• She was a brand new member of the "Red Hat Society

I also remember that she loved to laugh.

 

I took one final picture of Tex on her balcony, overlooking her beloved Florida landscape.  Here she is, just as I remember her, standing tall in her red hat, smiling.

The best thing I remember: Tex described a few miracles in her life as times when “God winked at me.”   

He did indeed.  God bless her family and all of those who lives she touched. 

Respectfully written and posted by Nancy Parrish

(Based on Wings Across America's interview and information provided by Tex's daughter, Jo.)

July 16, 2012

 ____________________

Memorials can be directed to:

John Knox Village Foundation

651 SW 6^th Street

Pompano Beach, Florida 3360

The Foundation for End-of-Life Care
5430 NW 33rd Avenue
Suite 106
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33309

Video clip of Tex's flight in an AT-6 thanks to JKV friends and History Flight of Marathon, Florida.