1916 Newspaper Abstracts

The Commercial Appeal, Vol. CIV #94, Saturday, October 2, 1916:
p. 3, c. 1-3  -

PICTURE:  Miss Katherine Stinson, southern aviatrice, while watching her
          biplane being set up on the Tri-State Fair Grounds yesterday
          afternoon, met a young admirer, Zona Bond, 1267 Central Avenue.
          They were caught by The Commercial Appeal's photographer while
          planning a future flight. [Corner of picture says "Photo By
          Bluff City Engraving Co.]


GIRL THRILLS CITY
        WITH NIGHT FLIGHT
        ----------
Sparks Mark Katherine Stinson's
        Course Across Sky
        ----------
  SHE SLIDES OUT OF LOOP
        ----------
  Engine Goes Badly and Spoils
        The Feature Act
        ----------
    AIRCRAFT GRAZES A POST
        ----------
Southern Aviatrice Will Make Afternoon
        Flights Today and Tomorrow
        at Tri-State Fair and Will
        Race Auto Drivers Around Track.
        Will Fly Upside Down Both Days.
        -----------
Today's Programme.

        Auto Day
        8 A.M. - Gates and buildings open.
        2 P.M. - Auto races start.
        2:30 P.M. - Miss Stinson makes first flight.

        ------------
        Flying 2,000 feet in the air, a shower of sparks from the
magnesium flares on her biplane marking her course across the starry sky,
Miss Katherine Stinson, the southern aviatrice, last night thrilled
thousands of Memphians with a flight over the Tri-State Fair grounds.
        Miss Stinson did not loop-the-loop.  Twice she essayed to swing
her heavy craft upward and over, but, she explained later, her engine was
going badly.  Finally she straightened it out and volplaned gracefully to
earth amid a thunder of applause.
        "My engine stopped twice while I was in the air," Miss Stinson
said.  "That frightens me at night, when I cannot pick my landing places.
In daytime, when I can see everything below, I have no fear, even if my
engine is going badly.  But at night my only guides are the bonfires on
the aviation field, and I cannot get too far away if everything is not
working well."
        The grandstand was packed in the early evening and thousands were
lined along the fences or standing in the open places on the fair
grounds.  Hundreds of automobiles were lined on both sides of the Parkway
outside the grounds.  Even downtown the tall office buildings were filled
with spectators, who watched out east and south windows.
        -------------------------------
LOOKS FOR OVERHEAD WIRES.

        Shortly after 8 o'clock the crowds in the grandstand and
bleachers caught first sight of the young aviatrice when Miss Stinson
walked on the race track to look for overhead wires and other
obstructions.  Few in the crowd knew that the frail girl before them, who
tips the scales at 101 pounds, was the flier.
        It was not until Frank D. Fuller, secretary of the fair,
introduced her in front of the grandstand that the crowd could realize
that a mere child was the star of the evening.
        The great military biplane was rolled onto the race track at 8:25
o'clock and placed in position several hundred yards north of the
grandstand.  The crowd waited expectantly until the seven-cylinder Gnome
engine began to roar.
        Miss Stinson came straight down the track with pots of red fire
burning on each end of her biplane.  When she was directly opposite the
clubhouse she lifted the machine from the ground.  It was 8:43 p.m.
        The crowd groaned and hundreds turned their heads as Miss Stinson
headed straight toward a tall telephone pole at the edge of the track.
But the big machine rose at the guidance of the girl, and missed the top
of the pole by inches.
        -------------------------------
CIRCLES GROUNDS THREE TIMES.

        Miss Stinson flew to the south, then swerved east and north,
climbing higher into the dark sky each second.  She circled the grounds
twice in her ascent.  On the second spiral the red lights on her
aircraft, then a mere speck in the sky, burned completely out.
        It was impossible to tell exactly where Miss Stinson was as her
darkened machine flew through the night.  Only the exhaust from her
engine, faintly audible in the distance, gave trace of the daring girl.
        Suddenly all sound was lost as her engine stopped.  The crowd
stood hushed until again the popping of the engine was heard.  Everyone
gave a sigh of relief.
        Meanwhile Miss Stinson had been flying to the north.  When she
crossed Madison Avenue, she turned her machine back toward the south, and
her battery fired the magnesium flames on her biplane.
        It was a beautiful sight as the sparks shot backward and marked
her course.  Miss Stinson was flying at an altitude of 2,000 feet.  It
was evident twice that she endeavored to swing the heavy craft upward
after diving to make the loop-the-loop.
        Suddenly she straightened the machine, cut off her engine and
began a graceful descent toward the huge bonfires that marked her landing
place.  When only 100 feet off the ground, she turned on her engine again
and came down to a perfect landing.
        -------------------------------
CROWD CHEERS AS GIRL LANDS.

        The band struck up Dixie, and the crowd roared its applause to
the young girl.  She had been in the air 12 minutes and had traveled
between 18 and 20 miles.
        Tears were streaming down Miss Stinson's face when she alighted
from her seat in the biplane.  It was bitterly cold in the air, she
explained, and the intense speed always makes her tears flow.
        The crowd got beyond control of the police and hundreds of men
and boys rushed across the track to catch a closer view of the aviatrice.
Husky patrolmen and boy scouts formed a cordon around Miss Stinson and
escorted her to her friends.
        Miss Stinson will remain in the city today and Tuesday to make
afternoon flights at the Tri-State Fair.  She will loop-the-loop each
afternoon and will race against the auto drivers.  Saturday afternoon at
the Missouri State Fair Miss Stinson beat Eddie Hearse in a race, biplane
against auto.
        Miss Stinson and her manager, William H. Pickens, and their party
arrived in Memphis yesterday morning on a special train over the Frisco
Railroad from Sedalia, Mo., where the young aviatrice flew Saturday
afternoon in the teeth of a treacherous gale.  The biplane, still in its
cases, was removed from the express car to the fair grounds at once.
        -------------------------------
WATCHED BIPLANE SET.

        Newspaper men tried in vain to locate Miss Stinson at one of the
downtown hotels.  They found her during the afternoon sitting on the
grass in the race track enclosure, superintending the setting up of her
aeroplane.  She was clad in a pink frock of some silky fabric and her
dark hair fell in curls over her shoulder.
        Miss Stinson is a vivacious young girl.  She is gracious in
manner and is an interesting talker who thoroughly understands the
business of flying.  She was asked first to settle the dispute that had
arisen as to where in the Memphis territory she had lived.
        "I was born in Birmingham," she said.  "We moved to Canton,
Miss., where I grew up.  Later I lived in Jackson, Miss., then in Pine
Bluff, Ark., and next in Hot Springs, where I sold automobiles.  I used
to drive up to Little Rock quite often.
        "About five years ago I went to Chicago to attend the Lillie
School of Aviation.  Max Lillie was my teacher.  No, I didn't have any
special girlish ambition to become an aviatrice- I just wanted to fly.
        "I made my first flight in Chicago in 1812- I mean 1912.  I'm not
quite that old.  No, I wasn't afraid, not in the least.  I like to fly.
I did not loop-the-loop until July, 1915, in Chicago.  No one taught me
how to do it.  I just decided one day to try it and I did.
        "No, it didn't take very much courage.  You don't have time to be
frightened- it's all over so quickly.  I never start to loop-the-loop
until I am 2,000 feet in the air.  Then I turn the nose of the machine
down to increase the speed.  When I am going good I turn it up and over.
        "There is no sensation whatever.  It just seems as though you are
sitting still up there and the earth were turning over.  I make my loops
in a circle about 300 feet in diameter.
        "I don't like to fly at night.  The engine goes better, but
atmospheric conditions are about the same as in the day.  Maybe the air
is a little more calm at night, but you can't see the landing places if
anything goes wrong with the engine.  The trees and the earth look just
the same.  I would much rather fly in daytime.
        "My biplane was built in Chicago.  My engine, an 80-horsepower
Gnome, the kind Lincoln Beachey used, is the only foreign part of my
machine.  The engine develops 75 miles an hour, the speed I am doing when
I start to loop-the-loop."
        Miss Stinson loves little children.  While she was walking toward
her biplane to pose for The Commercial Appeal she espied little Zona
Bond, three and a half years old, who lives at 1267 Central Avenue.  Zona
was with her father to inspect the strange looking aircraft.
        -------------------------------
MISS STINSON FINDS AN ADMIRER.

        Zona and Miss Stinson took to one another at once.  The aviatrice
took the child in her arms and held her high in the air to see the little
seat in which Miss Stinson sits when she goes a-flying.
        "Would you like to fly with me?" Miss Stinson asked.
        "No, not today," the child said.  "But I will when I'm a big
girl."
        "Will you fly with me if I come back next year?"
        "Yes, I guess so," the child replied.
        "We can fly all day long, can't we?"
        "Yes, we won't have to come down until supper time, will we?"
        This amused Miss Stinson greatly.
        "My papa said you would have on funny looking clothes," the child
said.
        "Well, aren't these funny clothes I have on?" Miss Stinson asked.
        "No, they are nice."
        "Well, you come back Monday or Tuesday and I will wear my funny
clothes," Miss Stinson promised.
        Then the two children- one grown and the other still a baby-
kissed and parted promising to meet another time.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE:   The Fair Grounds in Memphis is still used today for the Mid-South
        Fair held during the last of September each year as the first
        chill nights usually signal the approaching Fall season.  Today
        the Liberty Bowl Football Stadium and Mid-South Coliseum occupy
        the grounds taken at the time of this interview with a very large
        racing track used for harness horse races.  The track itself
        probably provided an ideal surface for takeoff while the very
        large infield of the oval horse track provided a large landing
        area lighted by bonfires.

        Roscoe Turner was quoted in more than one interview as saying,
        "The first airplane I ever saw was in 1913.  It was flown by
        quite a famous aviatrix of her day, either Katherine Stinson or
        Ruth Law, I can't remember for sure. She came to Memphis,
        Tennessee and flew at the old fairgrounds out there."  The Tri-
        State Fair was a major social event of the year in Memphis.  Each
        of the states- Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee had a special
        day and surrounding cities had special exhibits displaying their
        pride in local attractions.   Held in late September, after
        harvest time, farmers brought livestock for judging and awards
        and came to see the latest in farm equipment and exhibits.
        Industrial machinery and the latest automobile exhibits attracted
        businessmen from a wide area around Memphis.  Press coverage was
        pretty detailed with a front page column each day of the fair
        describing the day's activities.  I could find no description of
        any aviation activities during the 1913 fair.   I am inclined to
        believe this was the "famous aviatrix"  Roscoe was referring to.
        I believe his quest for speed crystalized on a new objective when
        he saw this 100 pound young lady manage this large aeroplane and
        he knew instantly he could do that if she could.  According to
        his accounts, he first tried to enlist in the aviation section of
        the Army in 1916.  While he may not have recalled the date
        precisely when recalling this event over 50 years later, I think
        his witnessing either this event or one just as dramatic was a
        turning point in his career.  Another attraction of the
        fairgrounds in Memphis was the Pippin roller coaster built in
        1915. Surely the speed king of later years enjoyed the rush of
        speed in this early grand wooden roller coaster, still
        operational today in Memphis as part of the Libertyland amusement
        park complex located on the old fair grounds at the same location
        and still operating as Roscoe and millions of other children and
        adults in the Mid-South have experienced it since 1915.


        Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - May 10, 1993