THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL - October 24, 1934
Once Fearful, Now Proud [Picture of Roscoe and Parents] Missing Image DOS RT3
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Col. Turner's Parents Once
Warned Him About Planes;
Now Take Pride in Career
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And "If He Hadn't Got Lost Over India," He Would
Have Won That London-Melbourne Race, They
Say At Their Home Near Corinth
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BY GRADY PEEREY
Special to The Commercial Appeal
Corinth, Miss., Oct. 24.-- Two elderly people have spent many hours
intently listening to their radio for the past few days at their humble
little home near Corinth. They are mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Turner,
parents of Col. Roscoe Turner, who, with Clyde Pangborn, finished third
in the London-Melbourne air race.
When the flash came over the radio that Colonel Turner and his
partner had lost their course over India and were groping around trying
to find a landing field with a supply of gasoline sufficient for only 10
more minutes of flying, Mrs. Turner, Roscoe's mother, almost swooned.
Tragedy Recalled
Only a year ago that day tradegy had visited the Turner home and
taken away Mrs. Mollie Derryberry, mother of Mrs. Turner and grandmother
of the noted flier, in an automobile-train crash. Mrs. Derryberry had
been crippled for some time and her crutch prevented her from getting out
of the automobile which had stalled on the Southern Railway tracks before
a passenger train crashed into the car and crushed out her life. The
radio report of Roscoe being lost brought all this vividly back to Mrs.
Turner's mind, and it looked for a time as if the anniversary of her
mother's tragic death might again bring another tragedy into her life.
The parents sat holding each other's hands and listening to the
radio for news of their boy, Roscoe Turner, the farm lad whom the world
of aviation has acclaimed as America's ace speed flier.
Roscoe Turner's mother, like many another mother, watched her
children grow up in an age of daredevil recklessness and one of
increasing speed. She warned her son not to drive too fast when he went
out "courting" in the first automobile the family owned, little dreaming
that some day this boy would break all records in crossing the continent
at the terrific speed of 271 miles an hour.
But, during the past few days, as she followed Roscoe's progress as
he rocketed through the sky in the London-Melbourne international speed
race, she experienced thrills of pride at her son's achievement.
Now They Give Him Credit
The parents had warned Roscoe years ago, when he first began flying
that "it will bring you to no good end." Now they are ready to give him
all credit for his brilliant career.
Long ago Mrs. Turner decided that Roscoe's airplane is no more
dangerous than the old family fliver used to be, but she recalls that at
the time her son was teaching himself-- and he is self-taught-- how to
fly, no one would believe it, and she least of all, and that she gave him
no encouragement at all.
Mr. Turner recalls the time Roscoe, knowing his father's distaste
for his rickety airplane, deliberately flew from the Corinth flying field
out over his father's farm, frightening the family and scaring the team
of mules with which he was plowing in a field nearby. Never would the
father give his blessings to his son's career, but now he glows with
pride whenever Roscoe's exploits are mentioned.
E.F.Waits, Corinth's real pioneer in the field of aviation, and
with whom Colonel Turner worked in scraping together his first airplane
out of parts picked up here and there, also tells of the speed king's
early and persistent efforts at flying.
Parachute Jump
"When he came back from the World War-- he was in the balloon corps
as an observer-- his first adventure was to thrill a multitude of the
residents of this community with a parachute jump. Soon he set
up an automobile repair shop and just to keep the flying pot boiling he
experimented with an old Jenny which we constructed with scraps. Parts
of two or three obsolete motors were used in making the motor for the
plane. With what he had picked up about flying during the war he
coached himself for his first hazardous solo flight in this makeshift
machine.
"In one of his early flights to the nearby town of Savannah, Tenn.,
with me as passenger, he nosed the machine over and broke a wing. Later
he flew to Saulsbury, Tenn., and broke a landing gear."
All Corinth rejoices with Mr. and Mrs. Turner in Roscoe's success
as a speed flier, and were pulling for him to win the London-Melbourne
race.
They also agree with Mrs. Turner when she says:
"He'd a-done it, too, if he hadn't got lost over India."
Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - March 25, 1993