July 2014 Museum Newsletter
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July 2014 Museum Newsletter From the Director Pam Blaschum. Board of Directors The second quarter has been a good one for Pam Blaschum-Director the Museum! Our 1940’s Hangar Dance on Karen Holden Young-Early History April 26th was a successful fund raising event! We had 300 in attendance and featured the Ann Noland-Volunteer Coordinator Moonlight Serenade Orchestra. Many of our guests came in military attire and 40’s vintage Nancy Sitzmann-Event Coordinator clothing. (Pictured right are Ruth Richter Mary Ellen Miller-Board Member Holden & Burt Jolley.) Chris Funk-Board Member Carol Emert-Board Member/Archivist The biggest surprise was the arrival of Ruth Richter Holden’s 1937 Lockheed Electra 12 A Junior in TWA livery. (More about this amaz- Christopher Nold-Simulator ing story on page 3.) The Commemorative Air Force also provided a Fairchild PT-19. Operator These antique aircraft provided a great background for the orchestra! (Pictured below is a night of dancing with “Ellie” in the background.) Sheila Thomson-Committee Member Dianne Marks-Creative Consultant Volunteers Zana Allen Joe Ballweg Carol & Dean Connor Cyrus Devry Keith Epperson Donna Gentry Alan Hartmann Jim Lawlor Bill Leonard Larry & Marcia Lillge Art Lujin John Mays Raymond Rowe The evening prior to the Frank Ruege dance we had a small recep- Bob Schlueter tion in the Lindbergh Con- ference room and a dedica- Charlie Sheldon tion of the Main Gallery to Judy Shenefield Marie and Leo Trainer. In Dominique Spini attendance were Betty Sop- Alice Wasko er, Martha Noland and Di- anne Pepper from the Platte Lee Wilhite County Historical Society. Donna Wilkins These three were instru- mental in keeping our collec- tion intact while we were a TWA Museum chapter of PCHS from 1985- 10 Richards Road 2013. We are now our own Kansas City, MO 64116 501 C 3 non-profit organiza- tion. (Pictured left are Marie 816-234-1011 Trainer and Ruth Richter [email protected] Holden) Page 2 Silver Wings International We were pleased to be notified that we, along with the 800 Memorial in NY, will now be the charities of the Silver Wings International membership. Silver Wings Internation- By Carol Emert al, Inc. was founded in 1987 by a group of retired TWA “When any historical object flight attendants to celebrate the pride and dignity of enters a museum, it must be their chosen profession. The organization, which is open to identified by some clear and former TWA and Ozark Flight Attendants, numbers over ready means and its entry and 950 members throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and subsequent disposition must be accurately and per- Europe. manently recorded.” This last sentence is a quote Silver Wings and its members guaranteed a place in history from a book titled Museum Registrations Methods, for TWA through placement of vintage uniform collections which was printed by the American Association of at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Museums some years back, and contains the proce- WA. and The TWA Museum in Kansas dures by which museum staff care for objects held City. Uniforms are also placed by in public trust. Lynne Adleman and the Los Angeles Chapter in the Los Angeles Flight Each and every object at the Path Aviation Museum. TWA Museum has special his- The careers of our members span toric meaning, and to each service aboard aircraft from the DC- object is attached a story of 3 to the B-717. We are proud to an employee who touched the claim a member average of 30 years airline in his or her own spe- of service to TWA and Ozark Air- cial way. It is the mission of lines. Our Annual Convention and the TWA Museum to guaran- Gathering of Friends is held each fall tee that objects brought into in a variety of host cities. As we all the collection are cared for experience the loss of the identity properly so that future gen- of our airline we worked for, along erations will know the story with separation from colleagues we of TWA and its employees in have worked with, now, more than aviation history. ever, is the time to pull together to protect our friendships and our mu- tual history with TWA. Over the last ten months we have moved about 95% of the collection stored in one part of the building to larger and more permanent storage. As previously mentioned, we are separating objects into groups to determine what we have in our holdings, and to ear- mark objects, storage units, and equipment that we VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE would like to acquire in the future. We are very close to being done with the first phase, and will begin REPORT inventorying and counting objects this summer once I would like to thank Karen Holden-Young for all her help everything is in our permanent space. Once we have this past quarter. Recently she has put together a list of done that we will begin cataloging objects, photo- Board Members and Volunteers with emails and phone graphing them, and will give each object a tag with a numbers that will help greatly when emails are sent. series of numbers. The information will later be en- tered into the PastPerfect database. It is a fact that without our wonderful volunteers this museum would not be able to function. They are a dedi- cated group of individuals who are knowledgeable and In working through this process we are very fortu- enthusiastic about the nate to have two very talented volunteers assisting history of TWA and its in this complicated task. Zana Allen and John Mays place in commercial avia- are extraordinary in their ability to think through tion. We thank all the the steps required in the process, and both have volunteers for their time excellent abilities in the area of research. and talents. We are always looking The more we get into the TWA for new volunteers so if archives the more fascinating it anyone out there would all becomes. The stories that like to come and be a emerge are amazing. One thing part of our volunteer is for sure, it is a pleasure to family, give the museum care for TWA’s proud history a call 816-234-1011 and and we look forward to telling we will get you started. the stories in the future in our Ann Noland Museum displays. Volunteer Coordinator Page 3 The memory of Trans World Airlines is alive and well! This is more than an article about an airplane. It is also a love story. It begins when Ruth Richter Holden was a child. Her father, Paul Richter Jr., was executive vice president of Trans World Airlines and one of its three founders. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, TWA's hometown, as an "airline brat" surrounded by TWA people and their airplanes. Holden was enthralled by flight and became a TWA "hostess" in 1955, working the round-engine airliners of that era. She married in 1958. At that time management did not permit flight attendants to be married. She was forced to resign but even- tually returned to the sky as a pilot and now has 1,500 hours, an instrument rating, and a Piper Warrior. Wanting to honor her legendary father, who died at 53 when she was a teenager, Holden created a Web site detailing his involvement with TWA. This Web site caught the attention of Ed and Connie Bowlin, who wanted to sell their Lockheed 12-A Electra Junior. The airplane had once been owned by TWA, and the couple had hoped that Holden could provide historical information that would help them to sell the airplane. NC18137 was built in 1937 at Lockheed Aircraft's Burbank, California, factory and delivered new to Continental Airlines for use on its short, lean routes. Continental sold the airplane to Trans-continental and Western Air (later called Trans World Airlines) in 1940. The Electra Junior was operated by TWA from 1940 to 1945 as an executive transport and as an airborne research laboratory. It was used, for example, to develop static discharge wicks. At the end of WWII, TWA sold the Electra to the Texas Oil Company (Texaco). Holden knew that TWA had owned only one Model 12A (TWA aircraft number 240), and the Bowlins' e-mail sent her scurrying to her father's stack of logbooks. There she verified that her father had taken her at the age of 10 on a flight from Kansas City to Washington, D.C., in that same airplane. That was on July 16, 1944. She also recalls having been flown in it two years earlier with TWA President and pilot Jack Frye. During a subsequent telephone conversation with Connie Bowlin, Holden said matter of factly, "I don't know why I should help you to sell this airplane. I should be the one to buy it." She recalls thinking that she could not afford the airplane but simply had to have it. "You don't go looking for love; it finds you." Holden adds, "I purchased the airplane sight unseen in June 2005, even if it might have meant having to mortgage my home, sell my firstborn, and let the county bury me in a pauper's graveyard. I placed my faith in the ancient aviators who will help me to find a way to keep and fly “Ellie." (So named by Holden from the initials of the Lockheed Electra.) Holden had no buyer's remorse, even though she had no idea how she would get the aircraft from Griffin, Georgia, to her home in San Luis Obispo, California.