Excerpt from:

                               CORINTH VOICES
                                   Vol. I
                         Oral History Interviews by
                            Margaret Green Rogers
                 Interview with Lonnie Holley - June 6, 1977


    LH:   ...In the latter part of 1940 I came back to work the North
    Mississippi territory for them [Hibard, Spencer, Bartlett and Co., a
    Chicago hardware wholesaler] and worked it for about a year and a half
    before I enlisted in the Air Corps.

    MR:   Was that the first time you had ever flown?

    LH:   Oh, no.  My flying days go back to the time that Roscoe Turner had
    an old plane and he was flying out of his mother's and father's side yard
    over in West Corinth.  I used to go out there and help flunkie around a
    little when he'd be hopping passengers.  Usually, before he closed up
    shop he'd take me for a little ride over town.

    MR:   But you entered the Air Corps?

    LH:   To be exact, yes and no.  At the time the war (World War II)
    started I had about sixty to seventy-five hours flying time.  I was too
    old for cadets.  In fact, my eyes-- well, I realy wasn't quite too old;
    but my eyes wouldn't come up to cadet standards.  The Army Air Corps was
    needing men as flight instructors for the Army Air Corps; and they were
    using civilians.  I enlisted in the Air Corps; and they put me in
    inactive status.  I went to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to instruct.  That is
    where I met my wife, Marie.  However, after that school closed up, I was
    called to active duty into the Air Corps; and upon getting my discharge,
    a few months after the discharge, why we got married....   [pp.6-7]


    SOURCE:   Margaret Green Rogers.  CORINTH VOICES, Vol. I. Corinth,
              Mississippi: Northeast Regional Library, June, 1979.



    Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - May 4, 1993