WASP Final Flight

 WASP Deanie Bishop Parrish, 44-W-4

"Failure isn't failure unless you let it be. 

 It's simply a change in direction. 

 Just count your many blessings move on. 

 With God's help, anything is possible!"

Deanie Bishop Parrish passed away peacefully in her home in Waco, Texas, on February 24, 2022, just one day shy of her 100th birthday. She met every challenge of her century-long life with spunk, determination, persistence, humor, kindness, integrity, steadfast faith, and a sparkle that lit up the room. 

 

She was born Marie Odean Bishop on February 25, 1922; in a boxcar just off the main tracks in Defuniak Springs, Florida; to Jacob Ambus Bishop and Anna Ellen Bell. Nicknamed Odie, she was the middle child of seven brothers and sisters. In 1927, the family moved to the tiny town of Alturas in central Florida, where Odie followed her big sister to the one-room schoolhouse. Later that year, the family moved 30 miles south to the larger town of Avon Park. Odie again followed her sister to school, but the teacher said she was too young. Yet, her mom insisted the teacher test the young girl. Odie passed and began first grade a year and a half early. For the next 12 years, she never missed a day of school and graduated in 1939 as the Valedictorian at Avon Park High School. There may have only been 30 in her class, but she always said, “I’d still have been the Valedictorian even if there were 300!”

 

During the Bishop’s early days in Avon Park, they lived in a wooden-floored tent about four miles outside of town. When Odie was six, her family was fortunate to survive the Great Okeechobee Hurricane, now called Florida’s deadliest natural disaster. The young family took shelter in a cinder block home. The infamous Florida hurricane destroyed everything they owned except the family clock. It was found in a tree over a mile away.

 

While in high school, the five-foot-tall Odie played center on the basketball team until the team began traveling and she had to go to work to help support the family. By day, Odie was a bookkeeper and teller at the local bank, and by night, she was the cashier at the local movie theatre. When World War II started in Europe, the United States designated Avon Park as home to one of the hundreds of primary schools set up across America for young men to learn to fly. Young Odean, no longer called Odie, met the instructors as they cashed their checks at her bank. Convinced she was just as smart, if not smarter than the young cadets, she found an instructor and began taking lessons. Her first solo flight experience, taking off in a Piper Cub, was a harrowing one. Controlling the plane from the backseat as you do when you first solo, she was climbing to altitude and the control stick came off in her hand. She didn’t hesitate for one second as she tore her seatbelt off and climbed over the front seat just in time to keep the plane from stalling and crashing. Her instructor watched the whole thing from the ground and swore to himself if Odean made it down alive, she would never fly again! But when she finally landed safely and the stunned instructor found out why she landed from the front seat, he told her, “Now you know! You have the right stuff to be a pilot!”  Her death-defying “stick story” made the local paper and subsequent publications later in her life.

 

Once America was thrust into WWII, Odean packed up and headed for Houston, Texas, found a job in a bank, and continued flying. After earning enough money to buy a third share in an airplane, she began flying with the Civil Air Patrol, patrolling the coast for downed aircraft and submarines. In 1943, she heard about the WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training program, and on her 21st birthday, she applied. She was granted an interview with the head of the program, Jacqueline Cochran.

 

Thus, she boarded a train to Fort Worth, Texas, passed her interview and all tests, including an Army physical, and was accepted into the WASP Class, 44-W-4. She then paid her way to Sweetwater, Texas, and from November 1943 to May 1944, she trained to fly ‘the Army Way.” Following graduation, she was sent to Greenville, Mississippi, to fly as an engineering test pilot. After a brief check out with a twin-engine aircraft, she was assigned to transition to fly the B-26 twin-engine bomber at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. After completing the training, the Army kept her at Tyndall as an air-to-air tow target pilot to train B-24 gunners for combat. One B-24 pilot, Bill Parrish, who had just returned from evading capture after being shot down over Yugoslavia became the “love of her life.” He nicknamed Odean “Deanie,” a name she cherished the rest of her life.

 

The WASP disbanded on December 20, 1944, and Deanie and her older sister moved to Langley, Virginia, where she challenged the U.S. Air Force to hire her as the first civilian chief aircraft dispatcher. They did, and in June 1946, Deanie and Bill were married. Months later, she followed him to the Panama Canal Zone. With Bill gone much of the time, she was hired as personal private secretary for the director of operations for the 6th Air Force.

 

For the next 20 years, Deanie was a proud Air Force wife. She followed Bill on his assignments as they started their family. Their first daughter, Nancy Allyson, was born at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. Their youngest daughter, Barby Anna, was born near Tachikawa Air Base at Tokyo General Hospital. Eventually, the Air Force sent the family to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey; Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; and finally, to Ellington Air Force Base, Texas, where Bill retired. 

 

In 1975, with two daughters in college and after thousands of hours volunteering at Houston Baptist Hospital Southeast, Deanie decided to do what she couldn’t’ do when she finished high school. Four years later, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston.

 

Bill retired from his second career in the real estate business in 1981, and the couple moved to Waco, Texas, to be near their grandchildren. Deanie began volunteering for Historic Waco and the Waco Welcome Corps. When she wasn’t spending time with her grandchildren, which was her favorite thing, she and Bill cruised the country in their motor home on mission trips. In 1992, Deanie wrote “We Got the Stuff, the Right Stuff,” the only WASP rap song, for the 50th Anniversary of the WASP. Unfortunately, her Bill passed away in 1993.

 

With the encouragement of her daughter, Nancy, Deanie agreed to volunteer as the Assistant Director of Wings Across America, a project created to educate and inspire generations with the history of the pioneering WASP. Deanie and Nancy began a 24-year journey of interviewing and sharing the inspirational stories of more than 100 WASP. In 2003, they co-founded the National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater, Texas. Deanie became an inspirational speaker as she continued to share stories about the WASP and helped lobby for the Texas WASP to be inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. In 2007, Deanie and Nancy created a traveling FlyGirls exhibit for the Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. Deanie also began a campaign to lobby Congress to award the WASP the Congressional Gold Medal. At the official ceremony in 2010, Deanie proudly represented all WASP as the featured speaker at the ceremony where key U.S. Senators and the House Speaker presented the WASP with this well-deserved medal.

 

Deanie Bishop Parrish was a life-long Southern Baptist and a long-time member of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church. She served as secretary of the National WASP WWII organization, was inducted into the 99’s International Forest of Friendship, accepted the WASP Congressional Gold Medal, and also received a second Congressional Gold Medal for her service with the Civil Air Patrol. In 2011, she was honored as an Eagle in the Gathering of Eagles program at Maxwell Air Force Base, forever commemorating the heroes of our U.S. military. She was a proud Alumni By Choice of Baylor University, and as a pinnacle achievement, alongside her daughter, Nancy, she was inducted into the National Women in Aviation Pioneering Hall of Fame in 2015.  

 

For Deanie, there was never an idea that was too big. Ensuring the WASP were in the history books was indeed a lofty goal, but she reached it. She raised the bar and challenged others to do the same. From learning to fly when women didn’t do that, to flying military aircraft to support WWII, to fighting for the Congressional Gold Medal that recognized the women who made such an impact…Deanie Bishop Parrish lived a blessed life that proved with God, nothing was impossible. She would challenge you to carry on that torch!

 

She was preceded in death by her husband, William Allison Parrish, daughter Barby Anna Parrish Williams, brothers HL, Willie J, Edward James, and sisters Ruby Lucille and Louise. Left to honor her memory are daughter, Nancy Allyson Parrish; grandson, Brady Williams and wife, Kimberly Williams; granddaughter, Brook Henry and husband, Michael Henry; her great-grandchildren Logan, Jonah, Charley Ann, and Jack; son-in-law Dale Williams, and brother Walton Bishop. 

 

A private graveside service with military honors will be at Waco Memorial Park on March 4, 2022, as Deanie requested. The family invites you to sign the guest book at Wilkerson Hatch: 6101 Bosque Blvd. Waco, Texas 76710, beginning Wednesday morning, March 2 at 10 am. You are welcome to leave a message or memory on the “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.

 

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to whatever touches your heart in memory of WASP Deanie Parrish. You will be helping your worthy cause, and in naming your honoree, you will be educating America. If you prefer, you may donate to the “Wings Across America Project” @ Baylor University. https://bbis.baylor.edu/give 

 

LINKS:

Great Okeechobee Hurricane https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-1928-hurricane-story.html 

Video: The Stick Story https://vimeo.com/106602305/4ef5e2f96c

WASP Rap Song http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/songs/rap.htm

Eagle Deanie Parrish https://goefoundation.org/eagles/parrish-deanie/

Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony https://vimeo.com/106629651

Women in Aviation International Pioneering Hall of Fame: https://www.wai.org/pioneers/2015/deanie-

Deanie Parrish--Wings Across America http://www.wingsacrossamerica.org/about.html

Video: We Got the Stuff:   https://youtu.be/RFPJ9xUrnno

Personal note:

I've always said that mom raised the bar so high, I would have to learn to fly to clear it.  I'm so grateful for her presence and partnership in my life. Her belief in me and in the Good Lord made me think bigger and do more than I ever thought I could. Of course, I absolutely believe that God's in charge, and He certainly has been.  Just look what blessings overflowed in Deanie Parrish's life!   Mom was an igniter...with just a word, she could start a virtual fire of enthusiasm and accomplishment.  May God bless all of those who have been touched by this mighty woman of faith and determination.  You can truly accomplish anything with God's help and just a little bit of mustard seed faith.  

For more information, please google Deanie Parrish and just look at how God has truly blessed her and the WASP.  So, go,  Do.  Make a difference in whatever you choose.

Madelyn Marie Taylor Eggleston, 44-W-1, May 24, 2016

WASP Madelyn Marie Taylor Eggleston, a graduate of Class 44-W-1,  was born Saturday, June 7, 1919 in Red Oak, Iowa.   She was the daughter of the late Lawrence B. (Cap) Taylor and Blanche Beeson (Taylor). 

When she was 9 years old, her father took Madelyn to a local airport to watch an air show. The young girl persuaded him to let her go for a ride.  From that day forward she never lost her desire to fly. 

She graduated from Red Oak Junior College but reenrolled the next year in one class so that she would be eligible to take the Civilian Pilot Training course.  Each CPT class of 10 would only accept one girl.   Madelyn was chosen to be that girl,  completed the course and earned her private pilot license.

In early 1943,  when Madelyn  learned about a program training women pilots to fly American military aircraft, she applied(1).  After passing an interview, entrance tests and an army physical,  she was accepted into the first class of 1944.   She arrived at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas in the fall of 1943 along with 100 other hopeful young women pilots.  After completing seven months of Army Air Force flight training, she and 48 of her classmates, graduated.  They were the first class to wear the brand new Santiago Blue uniforms.  

After graduating, Madelyn was assigned to Las Vegas Army Air Field. She completed instrument school and was then assigned as an instrument instructor for male pilots. While stationed in Las Vegas, she met and married a B-17 bomber pilot, G.B. "Gil" Eggleston on Nov 3, 1944.  After the WASP were disbanded and WWII was over, the young couple eventually moved back to Texas and settled in Vernon in 1952.

Madelyn was active in her growing family's life.  She was a homemaker and served as den mother in cub scouts and group leader for campfire girls.  After her children were grown, she went back to school and graduated from the  Vernon College LVN program. She worked as a licensed vocational nurse at Center North for over 18 years. 

Madelyn was a member of the Eastern Star and a past worthy matron. She was a longtime member and very active in the Central Christian Church, was in CWF and sang in the choir. She was active in charity work, loved gardening, art, watercolor painting and china painting.

In 2010, long after her service as a WWII AAF pilot, Madelyn and her fellow WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their service during World War II.  It is the highest civilian honor our nation can give.

Surviving to honor her memory are sons Edward B. Eggleston and wife Toya of Vernon, TX and  Jon T. Eggleston of Vernon, TX;  daughter  Evelyn Wilson and husband Jim of Stamford, TX;   grand children Robert Eggleston, Allison Harding, Cody Shores, Amy Cervantes, David Shores, Tracy Wygal, Robert Wilson and Ashly Eggleston; and 13 great grand children.

She was predeceased by brothers, Bill Taylor and Eldon Taylor.

Visitation was held on Monday, May 23, 2016 from 7-8 pm at the funeral home.

Funeral service was held on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at 10:00am at the Central Christian Church with Rev. Jim Antwine officiating. Interment followed at Eastview Cemetery. Services are under the direction of Sullivan Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to the Central Christian Church.

The family would like to thank the Hospice workers and the home health care workers for all their special care. 
______________

1 During WWII 25,000 women applied to the WASP program (Women Airforce Service Pilots), but due to the rigorous training and strict qualification requirements only 1,830 were accepted into training and a total of  1,074 graduated.  

v/r posted by Nancy Parrish including the original online obituary and additional information on Madelyn's service as a WASP.  Photo from Wings Across America's digital archive.

Lillian "Jay" Glezen Wray, 44-W-9 August 4, 2013

WASP Lillian Glezen, 1944

During her first year at Texas Tech, Lillian Glezen made a bet with one of her sisters that, if she earned a “B” in math, she would get to ride in a small plane.  From that first airplane ride, she knew that she wanted to learn to fly. 

Lillian Glezen Wray, affectionately known  as “Jay” as well as “Nanny  Duke” and “Grandma Turtle,” was born in Gilmer, Texas on Dec. 9, 1913 to Thomas Hamilton and Lillian Corn Glezen. The young couple had recently moved their growing family from Indiana to Texas.    Lillian was not only the youngest of eleven children, she was the only “native Texan” and a true tomboy.

Lillian attended Gilmer public schools, where she became an excellent tennis player.  Following her high school graduation, she attended East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce, Texas (now Texas A&M Commerce) and Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. 

When America was attacked at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Lillian was working as a switchboard operator at the Southwest Phone Company in Waco, Texas.  After Pearl Harbor, she soon moved to Fort Worth and took a job at Consolidated Aircraft, working as an inspector on the B-24 assembly line.   She  used part of her pay to take flying lessons.  When she had acquired the number of newly reduced minimum required flying hours (35), she applied for WASP training and was accepted into class 44-W-9.

In April of 1944, Lillian and 106 other young women pilots arrived in Sweetwater, Texas and reported to Avenger Field for WASP training. After seven months of AAF flying training, in November, 1944, Lillian and fifty-four of her classmates graduated,  received their silver WASP wings, and became Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP,  the first women in history to fly America’s military aircraft).        

She was then stationed at Goodfellow Army Air Base in San Angelo, Texas, where she flew AT-6s and BT-13s, training male cadets.  She also occasionally ferried PT-19s to other air bases.

On 20 December 1944, the WASP were disbanded and Lillian returned to Fort Worth.  She soon accepted a job with the CAA (now the FAA) in Alburquerque, New Mexico.   After several years and transfers, she accepted a job in Region II in  Salt Lake City, Utah as an air traffic controller.   It was there, in 1947,  that she met her future husband, Johnston Wray, who was also an air traffic controller.   

Lillian and Johnston married, started their family, and eventually settled in Burbank, California.  The couple successfully raised three sons: John, Gordon, and Dan,  and were also the proud grandparent of six grandchildren: Jaisha, Karleen, Cody, Morgan, Danny Jr. and Gordon.

Over the years, Lillian stayed close to her WASP friends attending countless WASP reunions all over the country.  She enjoyed a life-long sense of adventure and was always proud of the progress the WASP made for women’s equality.  She also kept up with her home town news. She subscribed to The Gilmer Mirror, the local newspaper, which she read twice a week.

WASP Lillian Glezen Wray,  family and USAF escort, March 10, 2010

In March, 2010, Lillian, together with her entire family, gathered with other WASP  and their  families  in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour that Congress can award.

On August 4, 2013, just four months shy of her 100th birthday, Lillian died of natural causes at her Burbank home. 

Her loving family well remembers this pioneering pilot for  “her wry sense of humour  and her love of Angels’ baseball,” which kept the family smiling through the years.   Lillian was proud of her independence, and lived alone up until the last month of her life,  with the companionship of her beloved beagle (Duke) and her dedicated cat (Tiger Sue).   

Lillian Glezen Wray will be missed and she will be well remembered.  She was an inspiration to all who knew her. 

_____________________________________

Personal note:  Although I never had the honor of meeting Lillian in person, we emailed back and forth over the years.   When I sent out the first information to all the WASP concerning the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, Lillian was thrilled and replied right away, saying that she would be coming to Washington, DC with fourteen family members.   What a wonderful celebration that must have been!

WASP Lillian Glezen Wray, March 10, 2010

Six months later, Lillian emailed that she really didn’t do much traveling anymore, but that she knew she would be making one final trip to Gilmer, Texas.    She requested a military funeral and that her final resting place be next to her mother.  

In late September, her family will be honoring her request and taking Lillian home to the small East Texas town she had always called home.

As her family recently said,  "Lillian will be looking down at us from the heavens that beckoned her as a young  woman to become a pilot. She will live always in the hearts and lives of her family and all those she has touched."

God bless her family and all of those who will continue to be inspired by this pioneering lady pilot.

Respectfully posted
Nancy Parrish

 Sources:

 Crescenta Valley Weekly 

“Class 44-W-9” compiled and edited by WASP Betty Stagg Turner  copyright 1997.  p. 167.

“Out of the Blue and Into History” by WASP Betty Stagg Turner  2001 Aviatrix Publishing. p. 513.

The Gimer Mirror

Photos added by Wings Across America and Lillian’s family

Edith Smith Beal, 44-W-7 | April 24, 2013

Edith was born on July 15, 1916, in Kirkland, N.Y., the daughter of W. Carlton and Edith F. Munger Smith. She graduated from Buffalo State Teacher's College and studied Art at Pratt Institute.

After teaching for three years and learning to fly an airplane,   In 1944 Edith applied for and was accepted into a flying training program to teach female pilots to fly military aircraft.  She then paid her way to the flying training base at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.  She was one of ninety-eight young women pilots who became  members of class 44-W-7.

Edith was one of only fifty-nine trainees who successfully completed the seven months of military flight training. On September 8, 1944, Edith graduated and received her silver WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) wings.  After graduation, she was assigned to Eagle Pass Army Air Base, Eagle Pass, Texas.  While at Eagle Pass, Edith flew AT-6’s for Advanced Gunnery School, towing targets to train cadets in gunnery training.

During her service at Eagle Pass, Edith met Flight Instructor Donald Ivan Beal, from South Portland, Maine. The couple began dating and, after the WASP were disbanded, they were married on Feb. 10, 1945. Together they raised their four children and operated Sandy Cove Cottages for over twenty years,  before retiring to Florida to enjoy their ‘golden years’. During those years, Edith took up her artist's brush again, painting in water-colors.

Edith  passed away on April 24, 2013 at her home after a short illness.

She was a member of the First Congregational UCC Church of Bridgton, Maine.   She was predeceased by her parents,  her husband of fifty-three years,  a sister (Frances Adams),  and a brother (Charles Munger Smith).  She is survived by her four children:   Kathy Bartke and husband Hal;  Carol Riley;   Jon Beal and wife Hope;  Nat Beal and companion,  Jane;  thirteen grandchildren;  and eleven great-grandchildren.

A memorial service to honor  Edith’s  life was held at First Congregational Church in Bridgton, Maine on Monday, May 13, at 5 p.m.

Donations in Edith’s memory may be made to the Donald I. Beal Memorial Fund of Bridgton Scholarship Foundation.


v/r re-posted by Nancy Parrish  from official obit  (WASP content added) 

Mildred Inks Davidson Dalrymple, 44-W-4 Nov.

Millie.  
Millie Dalrymple.  
Mildred Inks Davidson Dalrymple, WASP  44-W-4

Millie was a WASP like no other, but that describes most of the WASP I know.  She was spunky, optimistic and determined.  If you asked her, she’d tell you right up front she was “bossy,” but for me, Millie was also a unique kind of cheerleader, and I will so miss her encouraging words. 

Millie took her final flight on Wednesday, sitting at a table in the dining room at Westminster Manor in Austin, Texas.  She was telling one of her famous stories.  She loved to tell stories.  I hope she would smile if I said to her “and most of them were true.”  Now that I really think about it, no, she would disagree; look directly into my eyes and say,   “ALL of them were true.”  I’d be the one smiling.

In all of her important works—contracts, articles, and honors, she was ‘Mildred,’ and in 2009, when she completed her self published autobiography,  she signed it,  quite properly, with ALL of her names: ‘Mildred Inks Davidson Dalrymple.’  However, she titled it simply:  “Millie’s Milestones.”

I first met Millie at one of the WASP conventions—I don’t remember how far back.  Millie was a classmate of my mom’s,   so, there was an instant friendship.

After that WASP Convention and several other events honoring the WASP, I began working on my Wings Across America project.  It didn’t take long to convince mom to join me, and when Millie  heard what we were up to, she was the first WASP to ask, “What can I do to help?”   Millie became our ‘test subject’.  She was our very first WASP interviewee.

We borrowed a camera from my old PBS station.  We also borrowed my friend, Joani, who was head of production.  Down to Austin we went, the three of us-- setting up equipment for the first time in Millie’s den.  We set up lights, microphones and a huge camera.  Millie wasn’t the least bit phased.

It was a delightful experience.  Millie was delightful. 

From then on, she was one of our best WASP Champions!  Mom and I are still both so grateful for her friendship and her steadfast and vocal support. 

Mildred Inks Davidson Dalrymple.    Indelible.  Unforgettable. 

If you visit the  "FlyGirl's WASP Exhibit," you'll see Millie's inspirational words etched on a panel that says “Passing it On.”  I include it now, because that is why she did the interview in the first place—to pass it on and to inspire others.

     “I was the absolutely minimum of everything that you could be to get into the WASP.    I thought I could, and I applied myself and I made it. I think anybody who really wants to do   something very bad, if they work at it, and they focus, and they concentrate, they can do it.”

                 Mildred Davidson Dalrymple, 44-4

God bless her family -- and all of us who were touched by this larger-than-life WASP.


Services for Mildred Inks Davidson Dalrymple will be

Tuesday, Nov. 20th, 10 am
Covenant Presbyterian Church
3003 Northland
Austin, Texas


Just in from the Austin American Statesman--

Millie Dalrymple Millie Dalrymple, a member of the "Greatest Generation" who served her country and her family in war and peace, is now at rest. Millie was born on February 14, 1920, to Roy Banford Inks and Myrtle Louise Moss. She died peacefully on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at the age of 92. 

At birth Mildred Banford Inks weighed only a few ounces over three pounds and was placed in an improvised incubator - a shoe box with a lamp. Her prospects for survival were slim. She not only survived, but went on to become a strong life force, impacting many people and achieving many goals, often as a pioneer. That she survived, and ultimately thrived, may in part be due to her parents' stock. 

Her father was Roy B. Inks, a business man in Texas who helped establish the Highland Lakes, one of which is named after him. Her mother, Myrtle Moss Inks, gave her some of the Moss family stock, pioneers of Texas with roots to the Battle of San Jacinto and a family ranch west of Llano. She grew up in Llano, Texas, where she enjoyed a good life learning, among other things, how to play tennis with an unorthodox serve and many improvised self-taught shots. However, the Great Depression, the early death of her father, and World War II changed things dramatically. 

She graduated from the University of Texas, took an editing job with the state legislature, and married a B-17 bomber pilot. After his plane was shot down and he was listed as missing in action in Europe, she applied to train to become a "WASP" (Women Airforce Service Pilots). She and other courageous women flew military airplanes stateside, putting in break-in hours, towing targets, transporting military people, and so on. Her log book showed many hours piloting our heaviest bombers - B-17's and B-24's. She had many adventures and close calls, but defied the odds again and made it through. 

In the meantime, her brother, Jim Moss Inks, was also shot down and missing in action. Her brother eventually returned home alive. Her husband did not. 

After the war Millie married Edwin Dalrymple, a friend from Llano who had been a Spitfire fighter pilot in the war. During their first 20 years of marriage they raised three children while Edwin was an FBI agent, first in Washington DC and later in Houston. They moved to Austin in 1967 and were married for 60 years before his death in 2006. 

Millie worked part time as a substitute teacher while the kids were growing up in Houston. In Austin, she worked full-time to help earn money and channel her energy. In those jobs, she again showed her pioneering spirit, including setting up and managing the first word processing center in Austin. She also took up tennis again, winning dozens of tournaments and eventually achieving a national ranking as a senior doubles player. 

Later in life, she became a sought after speaker, describing her adventures as a WASP. In 2010, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her service as a WASP which she received in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC.

 Throughout her life she was known not only for taking charge and tackling problems head-on, but also for taking care of many family members and others. At one point when the family lived in Houston, she cared for a household that included her mother, her husband, her three children, and her brother's children Roy and Suzanne Inks. 

The last few years of her life, she became the one needing care, which she sometimes accepted with grace and sometimes fought with a rebellious streak. 

She will be missed. 

She is survived by her son Dennis Dalrymple and his wife Billie, daughter Gail Dalrymple and her husband Tom Richardson, and son Tom Dalrymple and his wife Elisa. In addition, her survivors include grandchildren Neil Dalrymple, Holly Dalrymple, Travis Dalrymple, Scott Richter, Tracy Eldridge, and Peter Richter, step-grandchildren David and Laura Richardson, and great-grand children - Austin Dalrymple, Reese Dalrymple, Katherine Eldridge, and Millie Eldridge. She is also survived by Gail Botello, her caretaker, who gave her unconditional love and care for the last few years of her life, for which the family is very grateful. 

Millie will lie in state Monday, November 19th from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, North Lamar. 

Memorial services will be held on Tuesday, November 20th at 10:00 am at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 3003 Northland Drive, Austin, Texas. A reception will follow at the church. A graveside service and burial will follow later that day at the City Cemetery in Llano, Texas. Those who wish to commemorate Millie's passing with a donation may contribute in her memory to either the Llano Library, 102 E. Haynie, Llano, TX 78643 or the National WASP WWII Museum, 210 Avenger Field Road, Sweetwater, TX 79556. 

Obituary and memorial guestbook available online at www.wcfish.com
Published in Austin American-Statesman on November 18, 2012

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.