NOTE:  The following information is contained in a Northeast
  Mississippi Museum brochure containing a reprint of the cover and
  article in TIME, October 29, 1934, featuring Roscoe Turner on the
  cover:


                                ROSCOE TURNER
                   His early life in Corinth, Mississippi
                                     by
                              Milton Sandy, Jr.

          Roscoe Turner was a young man from Corinth, Mississippi who
  achieved legendary fame during the period between W.W.I and W.W.II which
  is now referred to as the Golden Age of Aviation.  Roscoe was born on a
  farm near the Jones Community (now called Gift)  in Alcorn County on
  September 29, 1895.  His parents were Robert Lee Turner and Mary Aquilla
  Derryberry.   He was the first-born of eight children, six of whom (five
  brothers and one sister) survived to adulthood.

          Around 1902, the family moved to West Corinth to a home site
  since known as Turner Hill.  Roscoe attended the Glover School, a one-
  room schoolhouse, during most of his educational career.  Roscoe said
  that he finished the tenth grade there and then tried a stint at a
  business college in Corinth.  Roscoe's father was a farmer and part-time
  deputy sheriff for his wife's father, who was sheriff of Alcorn County
  during this time period.

          Roscoe left home around 1913, after a disagreement with his
  father, to seek his fortune in the big city.  Boarding with his aunt,
  Mollie Bailey, in Memphis, Tennessee, he obtained a job as chauffeur for
  Frank F. Hill, president of Union & Planters Bank.  In 1915, Roscoe
  resided at the Hill Mansion, 1400 Union Avenue, in Memphis. During this
  time, Roscoe undoubtedly got a taste of a lifestyle far different from
  his background in the country.  By 1917, Roscoe's experience and interest
  in automobiles led him to a position as a mechanic for Jerome P.
  Parker-Harris Co., distributors for Packard trucks in the
  Memphis/Mid-South area.

          In later years, Roscoe stated the first airplane he ever saw was
  flown by Katherine Stinson, a famous aviatrix of her day, at the Memphis
  Fairgrounds.  In 1916, Katherine Stinson lit up the night skies of
  Memphis in a spectacular exhibition at the Tri-State Fair. Thousands
  witnessed this slight girl skillfully fly her massive military plane with
  magnesium flares attached to the wing tips.  From that moment on,
  Roscoe's ambitions took a distinct skyward direction.

          In 1916, Roscoe tried to enlist in the Army aviation section but
  was turned down because of his lack of a college degree.  When war was
  declared in April 1917,  Roscoe enlisted on May 25, 1917, in the medical
  dept. in Memphis.  He was assigned to the ambulance service as a driver.
  After being sworn in, he was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas, where he was
  promoted to Sergeant on August 25, 1917.  In  November 1917, he was
  accepted as a cadet in the Army Signal Corps, aviation section, and was
  sent to Camp John Wise, San Antonio, Texas, for training as an aerial
  balloon observer.  On March 19, 1918, he completed the course and was
  commissioned a second lieutenant.   He sailed from Newport News,
  Virginia, on September  29, 1918,  for Brest, France.  He completed
  balloon training in France as the war ended and was assigned to the Third
  Army which moved into occupied Germany.  He returned to the United States
  and was discharged as a First Lieutenant on September 4, 1919.

          In the fall of 1919, Roscoe met an Army Air Service pilot, Lt.
  Harry J. Runser, from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Runser owned a Canadian
  surplus Jenny aircraft and had started on a barnstorming tour when he had
  an accident near Memphis.  Roscoe was a skilled mechanic, knew how to
  parachute jump, wanted to learn wing-walking, and, most importantly, had
  $500 cash to put into a new  partnership.  Together Runser & Turner
  toured from late 1919 until early 1922, performing at county fairs and
  expositions, primarily in North and South Carolina. Business prospered
  and in April 1920, they sold the Jenny and purchased a three-seat Avro
  aircraft.  An advance man was hired to handle bookings and to line up
  suitable fields for landing since there were few airports anywhere at
  that time.

          One of the local events widely recalled in Roscoe's career
  occurred in October 1921.  Runser and Turner came to Corinth and Roscoe
  parachuted from an airplane over the old high school, the present-day
  site of the post office.  A week later, they went to Memphis where they
  had an engagement to perform the "CRASH" at the fairgrounds.  In this
  stunt, Runser flew a Jenny into a specially constructed house with a wide
  front door.  Roscoe parachuted from the diving plane as Runser continued
  downward and zoomed straight through the front door.  The wings of the
  plane and the house were destroyed.  Shortly thereafter, the partnership
  seemed to terminate as well.  Runser left for Danville, Illinois, to
  start a flying school and Roscoe returned to Corinth where he opened an
  automobile repair shop in partnership with Earl E. Cobb around August
  1922.

          With the assistance of E.F.Waits and Lee Kemp in late 1922,
  Roscoe rebuilt the crashed Jenny and taught himself to fly it.  By early
  1923 he was hopping passengers and offering flying lessons around
  Corinth.  With Earl E. Cobb as his stunt man, Roscoe was soon back in the
  aviation business on his own doing exhibitions and stunt flying.  By late
  1923 Roscoe had made business contacts in the Sheffield, Tuscumbia, and
  Muscle Shoals area of Alabama and formed the Muscle Shoals Aircraft
  Corporation with his Jenny as the initial aircraft.  This area, sixty
  miles from Corinth, was experiencing an economic boom at the time with
  the construction of Wilson Dam.  It quickly became the center for
  Roscoe's aviation business from 1923- 1925.  Real estate speculation
  brought many visitors and new residents to the area.  Roscoe also
  maintained contacts with former Corinthian S. H. Curlee, whose growing
  Curlee Clothing Company of St. Louis provided Roscoe some of his earliest
  flying contracts.   Roscoe's addition of stunt men Art Starnes and Lt.
  Bugsy Fisher led to the Roscoe Turner Flying Circus, headquartered in the
  old Sheffield Hotel.

          On his twenty-ninth birthday in 1924, Roscoe married a Corinth
  girl, Carline Stovall.  They were wed in his Jenny in a pasture on the
  Suratt farm north of Corinth, the present-day site of Shiloh Ridge Golf
  Club. Together they flew off to Dayton, Ohio, to an airshow and aerial
  honeymoon.  While in Dayton, they were photographed and featured as the
  aerial honeymoon couple in the Sunday pictorial of the New York Times.

          With his business interests in the Tri-Cities area, Roscoe became
  one of aviation history's first aerial commuters as he continued to
  operate his automobile shop under the name Roscoe Turner & Co. at
  Franklin St. and the intersection with the Southern Railroad tracks in
  Corinth.  He acquired a dealership for Gray automobiles, an obscure early
  brand in automotive history.  To refute questions raised about his
  automobile's ability to pull hills, Roscoe drove one of  the cars up the
  steep courthouse steps before a large crowd of spectators.  Many older
  residents of Corinth still recall with amusement this early stunt.

          Late in 1925 Roscoe Turner Airways, Inc. was formed and bid
  unsuccessfully on an airmail contract from Birmingham to Chicago. The
  president of the company was a well-known Birmingham doctor, Dr. Courtney
  W. Shropshire who was a founder and first president of Civitans
  International.  Around this time Roscoe became acquainted with Igor
  Sikorsky, a Russian immigrant who built really BIG airplanes.  Roscoe
  flew Sikorsky's first U.S.-built plane, the S-29A on promotional flights.
  One such promotional flight in May 1926 from Atlanta to New York carried
  then-councilman William B. Hartsfield, for whom Atlanta's Hartsfield
  International Airport is named.

          As the Tri-Cities economic boom ended, Roscoe moved to Sandston,
  near Richmond, Virginia early in 1927.  His career from there was to
  carry him to Hollywood and back and forth across the U.S. to set many,
  many aviation records during the decade of the 1930's.   Corinth's first
  airport was named for Roscoe Turner in 1936.  He retired from racing
  after winning the Thompson Trophy for the third time in 1939 and started
  Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corp. in Indianapolis in 1940.  Roscoe married
  his second wife Margaret Madonna on Friday the 13th in 1946 in New York.
  He was awarded the A.F. Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress in 1952.
  Corinth's present airport was named for Roscoe Turner in 1961. After his
  death in 1970, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in
  1975.

          To learn more about this extraordinary Corinthian, please visit
  the Northeast Mississippi Museum, 204 4th Street, Corinth, MS 38834.

                     Milton Sandy, Jr.               (c) 1993



  SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION (To the article in TIME, October 29, 1934)...

          Aviation history buffs regard the London-Melbourne race as one of
  the greatest air races of all time.  Roscoe's participation and status as
  the only U.S. entrant to finish the race was one of the highlights of
  Roscoe's long career in the public spotlight throughout the 1930's.
  Roscoe finished the race third overall but because the second place
  finisher elected to take first place in the separate handicap division,
  Roscoe was declared the second place winner in the speed division.  In
  addition to this TIME article, Roscoe was featured in other national
  magazines, newsreels, and toured the country making many speaking
  engagements in person and on radio.

          The untold part of this story is that Roscoe was counting on H.
  J. Heinz Company for whom he had being doing advertising endorsements to
  foot the bill for his operating expenses on this venture.  When Heinz
  failed to provide that backing, Roscoe was forced to personally borrow
  heavily on everything he owned to carry out this risky venture. Roscoe
  later said it took him five years to pay off his debts from this race
  flight. The goodwill from this success, however,  helped carry him
  through a three year stretch of bad luck which was to follow next in his
  racing career.

          After touring the country following his return from Australia,
  Roscoe came home to Corinth in late February, 1935, showed moving
  pictures of his trip, and lectured about it at Corinth High School. He
  flew the Boeing 247-D to Corinth and tried five times to land it here
  before finally giving up and going on to Memphis. Friends, including
  local aviation pioneer E.F.Waits, met him there and brought him back to
  Corinth.

          The Boeing 247-D which Roscoe flew then hangs today high above
  the main lobby of the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
  The plane is decorated on the pilot's left side with identical markings
  to those it carried in Roscoe's flight from London to Melbourne.  On the
  opposite side are the United Air Lines markings which the airplane bore
  for the remainder of its service career as a commercial passenger
  aircraft.

                                          Milton Sandy, Jr.



  Transcribed by Milton Sandy, Jr., March 30, 1994