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 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 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 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. She had nei- ther a taildragger endorsement nor a multiengine rating. Fortunately, she was able to sweet-talk her close friend Curt "Rocky" Walters, a retired captain for American Eagle, into going to Georgia with her and getting checked out in the airplane. Scott Nauman, current United Airlines Pilot, is pictured here with Captain Curt Walters,

Walters flew the airplane to California with Holden riding shotgun and grinning all the way. He, too, fell in love with the airplane and became Holden's partner in its purchase. They immediately began the process of restoring "old number 240" to its original condi- tion and TWA livery.

First Board of Directors Meeting

May 17, 2014 September 27-TWA DCS Alumni The Museum had its first Board of Directors Meeting on May 17th. Our newest board member is Chris Funk! Chris is a welcome addi- Convention tion to our newly formed board.

October 18-1940’s Hangar Dance Page 4

Volunteer Profile:

Dean & Carol Conner

By Pam Blaschum Carol says. . .”I don’t remember the exact day I start- ed with TWA but it was in 1967-68 and I worked in the Many years ago I medical department at 10 Richards Road in the exact was working a Flt. place the TWA Museum is now. In April 1969 I went to From TPA to STL begin my TWA hostess training and received my TWA with continuing ser- Hostess Wings on June 11, 1969. Being a TWA Hostess vice to MCI. The was my dream job. As a young girl I did my “What I flight was complete- want to be when I grow up” paper on this! I flew until ly full. The aircraft December 1969 when I was furloughed. was a Boeing 727- 231. In addition to I went back to work in the medical department until I all passengers seats was furloughed from that job. Dean and I met at 10 being occupied, we Richards Road in 1970 and we have been all about TWA also had a Flight ever since we got together. We met Pam Blaschum and Attendant on the Betsy Martin at an airline expo event we volunteered at jumpseat and a com- and decided when they started work on the TWA Muse- muting pilot riding in um we would help out with that and have been volunteer- the cockpit. Shortly ing here ever since. We love our TWA and have many after takeoff, a great memories as well as friends and “family” from woman sitting at the TWA.” emergency exit row jumped out of her seat and started frantically calling for help. As I approached her she said Dean started with TWA in January 1965 and retired in her husband was having problems breathing. I immediately December 2004. Dean received his private pilot’s li- suspected he was having a heart attack and moved the oth- cense in 1967. Dean reminisces “In sixth grade from er passengers out of the row and administered oxygen. the playground at Franklin Elementary in Argentine I The Captain was notified that we had a medical emergency would watch aircraft taking off and landing at MKC.” and we prepared to return to Tampa. The only problem That early fascination eventually translated in a career with this is we now have 2 passengers standing plus the with the airlines. Dean was with TWA 37 years and heart attack victim laying across all 3 seats at the emer- 3 years. During his career he was in gency exit. We proceeded to move the flight attendant to fleet service: stores, sheet metal, aircraft, hydraulic, the other seat in the cockpit, a passenger took her and engine mechanic. Dean received his A & P mechanic jumpseat, the wife of the victim to the aisle seat adjacent license in 1981. to her husband while another passenger held her 10 year old son on her lap. Can you count the number of FAA viola- tions that we encountered? No F/A’s in the cockpit for takeoff and landing, no passengers occupying a F/A jumpseat, no lap children over the age of 2 and only able bodied persons sitting—let alone laying—at the emergency exit. The Captain made a perfect landing in Tampa and par- amedics were on the jetway to remove the gentleman and wife and they sped off to the hospital. To add to all this chaos, we had just made an overweight landing with full fuel tanks and a full passenger load. The aircraft had to be inspected and we were then cleared to leave and head to STL. Upon arrival in STL, my flying partners and I were tidying the aircraft in order to expedite our departure to Kansas City. It was turning into a very long and dramatic day. Betsy Martin and I noticed a young man standing in the aisle. He approached us and he had driven to the air- port from Chesterfield, MO.—about a 40 minute drive—to personally thank us for saving his father’s life. His com- ments to us made the day not so long and tedious after all. This is one flight I will never forget. Page 5 TWA Suite at the 816 May 26th was the grand opening of the 816 Hotel in the West- port area of Kansas City. The 816 has 25 suites that feature Kansas City companies and we were honored to be asked to deco- rate a TWA room. I must say ours was a visitor favorite! Our suite featured 2 coach seats, a huge mural depicting a “Connie” flying in the clouds, vintage TWA route maps atop the desk and coffee table, Founders photos, a TWA first aid kit to hold hotel amenities, a bar cart, and life vest hanging over the toilet (for your flotation device)! Two unique items are the David Klein poster blanket and the shower curtain that has TWA logos. We will soon be offering those two items for sale in our gift shop. The bar served a TWA specialty drink, Bocci Ball, which I refer to as the Non-Rev Special! The Clipped Wings ladies were in attendance wearing their own vintage uniforms. They provided a meet and greet in the lobby!

Meet our newest TWA Museum Clipped Wings International Reunion

Volunteer Sheila Thomson! The beginning of October 130 plus former TWA flights attendents/hostesses gathered in Kansas City for a grand Nancy Sitzmann asked me if I wanted to help out. I said reunion and tour of our beginnings with TWA. Clipped of course! My stepmom worked for TWA for 30 years as a Wings International held it's 28th Bi-Annual Convention/ secretary and loved every minute of it . She just received Bring Your Heart to Kansas City at the Westin Hotel in her 50 year pin and was very excited. Crown Center. Young at heart were we as we toured the Before retiring I taught Kindergarten for 4 years and TWA Museum, the Airline Museum, many of the buildings Special Education for 24 years. of our training and TWA former business offices. What a thrill to tour this Memory Lane! We had a wonderful lunch I have my masters in education and studied in England for and tour of the Roasterie in mid-tour and even had a for- half a year through mer TWA Captain (in uniform) drive one of the two tour William Jewell. buses. So many of the I had my own dance Clipped Wings group studio for 3 years and were unaware of the have taught dance since diversity and breath of 1977. the TWA Museum. They came back surprised and I currently teach for proud of the work Pam Studio 320 and Cultural Blaschum and her Ballroom dance. mighty crew have done I also stage and deco- to make sure our rate houses. memory never fades. Good weather, I love to work in my good friends and great huge flower garden and memories were created. paint fun glasses, and Clipped Wings is a proud chairs for my friends. supporter of the TWA I hope that I will be an Museum. Thank you for asset to the committee. your gracious hospitality to us.

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Dianne Potas Marks---TWA Flight Attendant I was hired by TWA in Minneapolis in May, 1968 at age 19…Had to wait 6 months before I could start train- ing because you had to be 19 ½. My sister-in-law flew for Northwest and I was supposed to interview with them, but TWA hired me first. I flew up there on my first airplane trip from Sioux Falls just for the inter- view on ! Never left Kansas City as my domicile, except for when KC closed and St. Louis became the HUB. I was the only TWA F/A never to have had international training and never qualified myself to fly International.. Af- ter being recalled from the 1986 strike, everyone had to be qualified, and I was 6 months pregnant, so they said they didn’t want me jumping in the water pregnant! So I only flew the little DC-9 trips on Tuesday- Thursday just so I could be gone 48 hours from home.. I had 2 little boys and a husband at home! I started out flying the 707, the 727’s and little DC9s in KC.. My favorite layovers were New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. On my first flight to NY, we were in the taxi to take us to our hotel in Man- hattan, and we were just like giggling little girls in junior high school (me from South Dakota, the other “Hostess” was from Minnesota) The cab driver heard us talking about it being our first time in the Big Ap- ple, so he started driving us everywhere!! He took us to the Statue of Liberty, through Central Park, showed us Greenwich Village (it was 1968, remember), and on the Waterfront, they were filming “Peyton Place”, so he introduced us to the entire cast. He showed us St. Patrick’s, 7th Avenue, everything NY had to offer. We started to get a bit nervous after a while as to why he was doing this (really?, remember, we were only 19 and from the Midwest) We asked him why he was doing this, he said, “Everyone always gets a bad impression of my city the first time they come, and I wanted you to love it and always want to come back”. He took us to our hotel then, and didn’t want a dime for this or anything!! He just wanted us to love New York. That simple and I always did. Had a near mid-air over Indiana in 1976 with another TWA plane that made the news. We all landed in Pittsburg and went to the hospital with some injuries. First Officer broke his ankle in multiple places. Gave mouth to mouth CPR on the taxiway in STL (before we got the masks) on a passenger having a heart attack until paramedics got there. Some pretty bad turbulence into Omaha causing everything to fly out of everywhere. Other than that and a few hydraulic problems, and some passenger “drug” overdoses in the 60’s on the red eyes to LA and San Francisco, my flights were all pretty routine.. One funny thing happened that I remember well—was working a hot summer flight schlepping meals in the galley. Had taken off my skirt and just had my smock on to beat the heat. At the end of the flight, I was standing in the back galley of the 727 Stretch, proceeded to take off my smock, and low and behold, I was standing there in my panty hose…Those last 6 people in that little lounge got an eyeful! I looked at those men straight in the eye and said…very calmly, ”What’s the matter, haven’t you seen a women in panty hose before?” I went into the bathroom and I never wanted to see those people again in my life. Decided to take advantage of the TWA flights, and took a trip by myself in 1970, to Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Athens, Tel Aviv, Zurich, Frankfurt, and London in 2 weeks!!!! I think I brought $200 with me for 2 weeks. I will never forget that when I went to Jerusalem, on a 2 day tour on a bus, it was my 21st birthday, and I spent it riding a camel on the Mount of Olives, and putting a prayer in the Wailing Wall, and going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. What a way to spend your 21st birthday. Always told my sons to make that day memorable in a good way!! Thank you TWA!! I stayed with flying even after our “joining” with American Airlines. Stayed in STL, got laid off for 4½ years after 9/11, recalled to Chicago, laid off again, then commuted to NY, then went to DFW until 2013 when I finally called it quits. Couldn’t do the holidays, week- ends, and reserve anymore in my 60’s. I do not miss it at all. No regrets. I try to imagine myself sitting on a rocking chair in my 80’s looking back on my life, and can truly say, I had a wonderful life flying, have an amazing husband, and 2 sons who are doctors, and am so thankful for it and my career! I feel like we belong to a really unusual sorority of people who have witnessed the pulse of the World every moment we were flying! Sounds dramatic, but if you think about it, we really did know what was going on around the world at all times. (Watching a space launch in Florida that took off at the very same time I did and we lifted off through the clouds at the same moment was spectacular!!!) I am having so much fun volunteering at the Museum and thank them for letting me be my “flighty” self and getting my creative juices to go crazy!! I love sewing and am a “fabriholic” so making a TWA Art Bra for charity with propellers is one example. We decorated the 816 Hotel in a TWA theme room, my contribution was making a map decoupage on the lampshades and covering the bar cart with TWA images, also made valances and a luggage rack with fabric from First Class for the hotel room. We also had a hugely popular Hangar Dance, and I made some luminary bags out of map paper and a large lighted PVC wall for picture hanging. ..Great FUN! TWA needs to be recognized as the truly GREAT Airline it was and the TWA Museum has and is proving that, with everything they have to offer us to see, even though we aren’t “up, up, and away” anymore.

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Welcome to our newest TWA Museum Members! Since January 2014 we have welcomed the fol- lowing new members: 1. Which of the three co-founders of TWA worked as a soda jerk and dishwasher before co-founding TWA? Jim Davidson, Leawood, Ks 2. TWA was the first Airline to fly a shipment of livestock. What year was that? Helen McClelland, Prairie Village, Ks 3. How much money did the three co-founders, Jack Frye, Paul Patricia Yamashita, Blackfoot, ID Richter, and Walter Hamilton contribute combined, to start Father Steve Giljum, St. Louis, MO TWA?? Albert Gigstad, Nortonville, KS (Answers on p. 8) Todd & Barbara Gigstad, Nortonville, KS JoAnne Gentine, Northport AL Getting to know John Mays! Sam Greenfields, Parkville MO John has been a life-long resident of Kansas, growing up in Lenexa Terry McFarland, Independence, MO for most of his young life. At the age of 12, his family moved to a John Merchant, Kansas City, MO farm in Wellsville. In 1983, John was hired as an Animal Control Officer for the Olathe Police Department. He left the depart- Tom & Judy Vavrek ment in 1992 to become the Executive Director of the Southwest Robert & Julie Baker, Overland Park, KS Kansas Humane Society in Liberal, Kansas. During the period from 1983 to 1994, John served as Vice President of the Kansas Animal Carl & Bobi Zeoli, Independent, MO Control Association, President of the Humane Society of Olathe, George Kolias, Leawood, KS and as a Board Member/Officer of the National Animal Control Association (NACA). In 1994, John became the Executive Direc- Kenneth Wright, Parkville, MO tor of NACA and served in that capacity for 19 years. During his Clark & Marlene Billie, Carverville, PA tenure with the association, John became a longtime customer of Trans World Airlines, meeting new friends and developing a pas- Carl Hendricks, Mt. Vernon, IL sion and an appreciation for the airline and its employees. When Nancy Pate the acquisition of TWA was completed in 2001, John was a life- time TWA Platinum Aviators member (FF#125971112) having Jane Squires, Jackson, WY flown over a million miles and a Mac & Jean Knighton, Wichita, KS member of the TWA Ambassa- dors Club. John’s framed col- Jan Collier, Wantagh, NY lage of his last TWA flights are Ellie Lieback, one of his most treasured pos- Colorado sessions. He is an avid collector Springs, CO of TWA display model planes and tin planes/toys, as well as Thomas & Kathy books and films. John is cur- Coleman, Kansas rently the co-owner of Animal City, MO Control Training Services, a Vincent & Ruth company that offers on-site training and evaluations to ani- Murphy, Lea- mal control agencies and hu- wood, KS mane societies throughout the world.

Chris Nold-Connie Simulator Creator Christopher Nold is an aviation enthusiast that just earned his private pilot license. He has been an active participant with the museum for the past year. The most notable endeavor he's made for the museum was creating the interactive Super Constellation simulator for patrons. "I didn't realize how popular the simulator would become for the museum. I remember a day when a grandmother and her three grandchildren came to explore the museum. There was a young boy in the group and you could tell he really liked airplanes. He climbed up to the simulator and flew the Connie for everything it was worth. Afterward, he was awarded a certificate with his name on it and had a set of aviator wings pinned on his chest. With the biggest smile, the brightest twinkle in his eyes, he stuck his chest out with pride. The room filled with the grandmother's delight in seeing that he had such a great and memorable experience. In that moment, I realized the importance of the museum. This place goes beyond history, the TWA heart still beats here. Its love still reaches people." -Chris Nold (Chris is pictured here with Karen Holden Young and Ruth Richter Holden) Page 8

TRIVIA ANSWERS. . . . 1. Jack Frye worked as a soda jerk and dishwasher before co-founding TWA, 2. In 1931 TWA was the first Airline to fly a shipment of livestock. 3. Jack Frye, Paul Richter, and Walter Hamilton contributed $5000.00 combined, to start TWA.

TWA Museum 10 Richards Road Kansas City, MO 64116