The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, April 16, 1929:

    MEMPHIS PILOT FLIES AIRPLANE
    IN 'CHUTE TEST ON WEST COAST

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     SHIP FLOATS SAFELY DOWN FROM 5,000-FOOT ALTITUDE
        MOTOR DEAD, WHEN 60-FOOT PARACHUTE OPENS.
                CAPTAIN TURNER NOW STUNT FLIER

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          Capt. Roscoe Turner, once an automobile salesman in Memphis,
  later a member of the army air corps in France and after that a stunt
  flier headquartering in Memphis, yesterday proved that a parachute,
  attached to an airplane, can become the greatest safety device yet
  offered to aviation, in a test at Los Angeles.
          An inventor, working for more than two years, has at last
  designed a 60-foot parachute which can be attached to an airplane and
  controlled from the pilot's cockpit.  Recently, his plans perfected and
  his model 'chute constructed, he went in search of a pilot who would risk
  life and limb to test the appliance and demonstrate its practicability,
  or its falibility.
          Captain Turner, now a stunt flier at Hollywood, Cal., was
  approached.  He agreed to make the test and yesterday was set as the
  date.
          Captain Turner took an airplane which weighs 2,800 pounds, dead
  weight, up 5,000 feet.  At that altitude he killed his motor, and as the
  ship slipped into a spin, pulled the cord that released the parachute
  which was attached to the upper wing.
          The great spring, holding the chute cords to the plane wind, took
  up the snap of the opening of the chute.  The plunging ship righted and
  floated softly to earth in a field three miles from the Martin Airport
  from which the plane had taken off.
          The 'chute. for the first time, had proved its practicability as
  a safety factor.
          Captain Turner is a native of Corinth, Miss., where his parents
  now live.  When the United States entered the World War, Captain Turner
  enlisted in the aviation section of the army signal corps and was
  assigned to the old Driving Park squadron.  From there he went to Park
  Field and learned to fly.
          Soon after he had won his wings and his commission as a second
  lieutenant he was ordered to France.  He flew in the aviation schools
  there and later served with a pursuit squadron at the front.
          After the war he returned to Memphis.  But selling automobiles
  held no attraction for him and he went into aviation as a business.
  There were no transport lines for him to turn to in those days and he
  started "barnstorming."
          As a stunt flier he visited most of the fairs and carnivals in
  the south.  Then he moved to the west coast and entered the movies as a
  stunt flier.

     PICTURE- captioned "Pilots Plane in Test"

     Capt. Roscoe Turner, former Memphis flier, yesterday piloted a
     plane at Los Angeles in a demonstration of practicability of a
     parachute for airplanes as a safety device.  Since moving from
     Memphis Captain Turner has been a stunt flier at Hollywood.

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Data transcribed by: Milton Sandy, Jr. March 27, 1993