Dallas Finale • March 15-17, 2012
FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM
Three Years After It All Began
After interviewing Rowe Durant in Temple, I was due at my first “official” engagement in Dallas (an author's table at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, Love Field) early in the afternoon. So I hurtled up the freeway, darting in and out of the massive truck traffic that travels this route from the Mexican border north all the way to Canada, managing to be only a half hour late occupying my special seat. My table was the first thing that greeted visitors after they walked through the door and bought their tickets. Museum Director Bruce Bleakley had set up a colorful mounted poster about my upcoming presentation on an easel, and almost nobody walked past. For two days, I lassoed a variety of parents and children and museum volunteers for talks about the amazing women aero-engineers of WWII that none of them had heard of, inviting them to join me on Saturday for the presentation and meet some of the Cadettes. This was the museum’s biggest week of the year: the Collings Foundation had brought in its two crowd-pleasing WWII behemoth bombers (a B-17 and a B-24), as well as a gleaming silver and red Mustang P-51 fighter. I spent three hours hawking my book on Thursday and another six on Friday. Afterward, both days, I went out to the field to see the “Wings of Freedom Tour” planes. A ride on either of the bombers was available for $425 per person. Rather than turn over all my book sales income, I contented myself with a walk-through tour of each of them, marveling at the narrow catwalk that crosses the open bomb bay belly, and the numerous gun turrets or open windows through which the gunners aimed. The ball turret underneath the B-17 is especially notorious for having put the gunner at mortal risk if the landing gear failed and the mechanisms (hydraulic and hand-operated) for raising the ball back up into the fuselage weren’t functioning. Looking really close-up at the engine of the B-17 inside its metal cowling was awesome: it looked brand-new and gleamingly maintained, definitely trustworthy. But I still didn’t want to take a ride. For me to put my life at risk in a WWII relic, it has to be the SB2C. Nothing else will do: my heart belongs to the Curtiss Helldiver. (photo below: Peggy Upham in the Commemorative Air Force's SB2C, March 2009) |
Saint Patty's Day (March 17) at Frontiers of Flight

Saturday morning, Peggy and I drove down to set up in the main hangar as one of the many author tables lined up for the day. Everyone had to pass us as they headed toward the back door and the star metallic attractions (WWII planes) patiently waiting to be ogled, pawed, and photographed. We spoke to authors on either side of us, traded books with them, and hobnobbed with museum volunteers, most of whom Peggy knows. She’s been volunteering at the museum since I first interviewed my mother’s “Wild Bunch” friends (including her, Beth Wehner, and Betty Masket) at the Frontiers of Flight in March 2009 (picture at top of page).
In all that time, Peggy has maintained a low profile among the other museum volunteers about her WWII expertise as an aero-engineer. She prefers to focus on her post-war career as a mechanical draftsman for the petroleum industry. Her knowledge of aircraft construction and materials may be faded. But as we sat there, whenever she was engaged by any of the friendly volunteers who dropped by to ask why she was at this table with all these books, she couldn’t suppress a subtle glow of pride in the memories of her time as a Cadette.
We’d only been at the author's table an hour or so when a film production crew ("Big Bad Wolf") lured me away for an interview about the Cadettes and what this story really means. They had some sound problems, however, so after patiently sitting there, filling in the interviewer, a young woman on leave from the army, I said, “Come get me when you’ve fixed it,” and went back to join Peggy. (They came back to get me half an hour later and the interview seemed to go well.)
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Bruce Bleakley: A Man with A (Workable) Plan
Bruce checked in and led me upstairs to the auditorium for sound and lighting checks. It was clear he was all over it and had the PowerPoint/computer, remote control, and lavalier mike thing figured out. So all I asked him for was a table at which to sign the books after the presentation and then hightailed it back down to help Peggy sell books. |
New Cadette Arrival!

At 12:15 I was supposed to meet my next new Cadette (Laurel "Corky" McCorkle Williams — another “cover girl”), her sister Shirley, and niece Carol at the front door. I lingered there, handing out flyers, but didn’t see them. After fifteen minutes, I dialed the cell number Corky had given me and found out they’d arrived earlier and were already ensconced in the auditorium.
I went straight up to meet them and then led them back to the author’s table so Corky could meet her classmate, Peggy. They had a sweet reunion and looked like they were poised to carry on for the rest of the afternoon. But I hustled them into pack-up-and-leave mode and we carried all the books and other paraphernalia to the auditorium and set up hastily as people started arriving.
"Slide-Rule Packin' Mamas" (Presentation on the Cadettes)

I knew that several descendants of two deceased Cadettes from the Purdue Class of ’43 were attending. One of them, Happi McQuirk, the daughter of Cadette Florence Mooring McQuirk (in the neon green shirt) invited her entire DAR group, 12 of whom actually showed up. Marian Jackson Smith, daughter of Cadette Josephine Johnson Jackson, came with her daughter. You could feel how much they missed their mothers and appreciated the belated recognition. This is why I continue carrying this "lost story" to museums around America.
Peggy and Corky answered questions onstage afterward, smiling throughout. This very attentive group showed genuine interest, a rich reward for all the months of preparation. (Peggy’s son Steve, who came with his wife Claire, kindly volunteered to shoot the event with my camera.)
Peggy and Corky answered questions onstage afterward, smiling throughout. This very attentive group showed genuine interest, a rich reward for all the months of preparation. (Peggy’s son Steve, who came with his wife Claire, kindly volunteered to shoot the event with my camera.)
I invited anyone who was interested to join us at a famous Tex-Mex restaurant and then sat down to sign books. It was great to see such a long line of happily chatting people along the front of the stage. I scribbled as fast as I could, but the hardest part of all this social networking is figuring out how to be personable and write a sincere inscription. The group at El Fenix had a lively exchange over really excellent food, the likes of which we never see in Taos. The sauces were zingy and interesting without burning your tongue into submission. I could have stayed several more hours, but it was now late Saturday afternoon and people had other engagements. Plus, I had to start my drive home in the morning. We took farewell photos of Cadettes and direct descendants at the party. May our energy lift the story of the Cadettes and give it true national wings. Thank you one and all! (My mother the Texas Bluebonnet Belle thanks you, too.) Corky w/ sister Shirley Mallory (L) & niece Carol Beggs (R)BACK IN TAOS: ON AIR
I returned to Taos on Monday, March 19. Friday, the 23rd, morning talk show host Nancy Stapp interviewed me on Taos radio station KVOT. She was very complimentary about the book and the importance of the Cadette story. It was the best welcome home I could have asked for! |
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