A Word on Words; 2820; Rob Simbeck

building and gentlemen once again welcome to world war ii not the air can leave for it that's the book you also drops and welcome to world war and desperate that they're ugly there is an airport in our hometown knievel airport that is named for the small beer subtitle is the brief short life of me for it nia for it done as somebody who is sort of haunted the city of nashville for longtime will cause at a very early age she in effect went off to war she was one of a small group of women known as the wasps and she died in a tragic accident and you have written this book about it and you really brought back to life memories

that this city has long since gone above what happened when she died and what happened when she died was that the entire city was washed with sen reid bye because her father ever so for those city fathers in maybe the place to begin is to talk about old dr ruth was forged her father dr four was it was an amazing man he indeed the worst city fathers nuts are strong both the business as the social sense but dr rufus for it so it was an icon he was a founder he and a small group of men the kurds among them bought the insurance company courthouse steps in turn into the national eye facts insurance company which from that certain auspicious beginning became a just a few years ago ten twenty mayan or your business and that that not long after turman century

he was there to be an obama country club he and his wife who is from a boston high society how were two of the mainstays of the social life of nashville a in an era where there were dirty streets and board bellows there pretty much defined class for entire iran and he was one thing that struck me about the whole family there and ten kids in the family and he was so the last nominee merrick not as a citizen of america it and he was thirty five and still hadn't been married so look like that was going to be the end of a line of a great story of off to boston so that just might take it back with me yes the founders twenty year old debutante serving at the at the medical banquet and dubbed it in and in a life that otherwise seem very highly regimented it was a moment of whimsy to some degree and i'll it took she she fell foreman there are fifteen or so years apart in age but they were a couple that's defined glamour and defined

christie's most new for a long time and he takes her home to some call for one which is this massive farm and massive house and there the other there is news sons and then along comes really i'm sorry for him that the court whom are for employee who helped you sell that so much with this for nice ms maize i'm sure their problem but they're but then along comes cornea and a house full of brothers she race although as tom when i was entrusted fascinated at the how sure she had a tough time on meeting people can girlfriend but relations too tall she's all made me and someone comparable

advances for her a hank was hanged for it was an institution and this and this the fortnightly dance club farm fine young gentlemen and ladies girls and boys as you never marry few very comfortable and at fortnightly now there were there were two aspects of cornelia one there was a family with tradition and culture and high society and the other hand was simply the farm girl who tag along with his three older brothers and climb trees and play tarzan and there's a photo of her in the book standing on the back of a horse is about six so she was a fearless writer that way with her girlfriend she was five aisha she was away she was intelligent she both boys and girls when she was very young she enjoyed talking with and had a good cassells report but when it came to dating when she hit the age of thirteen sherpa five foot ten and the late nineteen thirties

it did not help a young way to be five feet and she towered over the boy's eye she lost all whatever natural athletic ability she had it was a lost on the dance floor she was clumsy she was nervous she was self conscious and all that by vasily disappeared when she was at the domain country club for one of the major balls of which did seem they had five or six year well and didn't want me at a distance what you went through that ordeal her mother broader palette exactly right we're not sure what the bride was both as you say a broader her best friend i suppose was elizabeth gray we've now elizabeth proctor of former arab bellamy that that enclave inside the city of nashville tn and those days on the western border of nashville but you had great cooperation from can they use family

and from her friends those who are remember well elizabeth was one of those who i take it was very cooperative in reminiscing about this these young women who among her peers was bright and inquisitive layoffs and say she was an individual is unlike any of the rest of them and the thing you've brought up earlier the effect that her life and death have this community after more than fifty years after her death the amount of passion the amount of care the amount that these people's lives have been touched by cornelia for it was it was awesome i was very impressed with it with us with elizabeth the yarn the story she told of how impressive she was as a student when she wanted to be and here again the iconic cornelia could be a great student when she wanted to when i was an english composition she was great when it was latin or science she

just didn't care about and was mediocre student and i hate admit that i never heard of all know about for iran before i read the book but apparently it was a place where young women went or were in our case young women were sent shiite militia won those are largely father was that western north quad autocratic way decree you to go to that school this can come and more than one woman pilot that went their family own little bit of just a little bit about this new world the thing that appeals a doctor for dr ford sent his three sons to bmi if you're going to be another war ii one of his boys to the officers if he could've said can you rate of emi he would've done it in a heartbeat they would it would've thought that liberals and traditional oh yes oh yes

yes and sheep and so are hogans so it harold not that great academic reputation butted heads the internet had the sort of thing that the things appeal to dr ford was ahead military drilling for women the only school he could find in the country that had that it was almost a paramilitary atmosphere for women and he loved the sense of tradition that came from being a four day world lie and grant's their land grant family from revolutionary war they were community leaders for a long long time as i said business and social leadership and he knew what was proper for such a girl coming up of such a family and it was that sort of thing and he does would not hear sarah lawrence it was an eastern liberal school he was by no stretch imagination a little and his original dance and she disliked it and familiar gun they're right and cornelia would later write to someone that those great gray wall street knew that familiar taken offline just to get

away from those great gray wall of god's liane she was strong willed however and she does one of the search warrants and she goes through its air launch a remarkable of awakening she was the first time i think challenge the intellectually and academically most are julian in stride and is it at excel now she's a living situations there aren't an this challenge is a great scene in there just a brief saying which is talking to her father about what one or professors says about people who own insurance companies and own radio stations she was that she'd come home for christmas and of course rules for the kind of the new gear when you've been away and the first we have

news that she was challenged by the professors because they were taught or request and works at sarah lawrence and she was challenged on the depth of her knowledge they knew she read aloud at a chart of the depth and she was a socialite and everything she took to it and she had a and the new can of vinegar about her when she got thomas of christmases at the dinner table it says derry my professor says that the people are insurance companies and radio station to bloodsuckers and there was a pause as so often happened in the house so when she said something about that age and then she added and that's always been our money just to make sure i got the point and so she was obviously a handful from the time she was well then she falls in love with flying and these great interviews with her flight instructor and a narrow down who really remember there were great affection and friendship

i wondered but you answered from a well they're doing is devon air looks somewhat similar carney world flynn time for you and pencil line was that show william i'm not a moment might not hit been a little minced there but you say no yes he was murdered time when he was this was an ear and i have to look for off neurons it was that explained what the year was like in terms of social mores of the things this was not a time or any of those things are taken lightly and he he thought there was a good chance she had a crush on him but so i mean he was married very much so and i was a professor was invited know when they saw each other across an airport or something they'd run them you're shooed run he would and he was a sort of you know southern way back take an easy walk across which iran was their job as arms or how you might think she would shake his hand it was does that title for more

relationship and although they've spent hours and hours together talking about flying and fine together he looked back and couldn't recall a single conversation about anything is of flying and the ears of a newer and it she was obsessed with flying and she loved him from the point of view that you love someone who can offer you insights into a world that you dust we wanna be part of you how it all the book with the most dramatic seeing your life save the deaths there is the cylinder seven nineteen forty one and shriek and this has become a licensed pilot i guess the youngest at her rage instead he has been known to flight training and colorado has now working in honolulu and on that day when the japanese attack she's in the air i've never read a more

riveting account of that war saying then her account and she's teaching ally ally in her native to fly suddenly she finds herself under attack she does the plane down runs in langer and has infuriated goes the mayor don't wanna believe that there is a japanese attack on pearl harbor and others that was almost like the country would've preferred not to believe but she did she ran into the hangar and the boats and strafe but there've been a few shots as she set her careless shots looked at her as the as the wave came in and then she landed the run was stretched and there were bullet holes that her plane took and she ran in with her student and no i'm a believer that their maneuvers going on all the time and the service it was cornelius is not happening and then somebody ran in behind her and said hey bob ties is dead out their ties with the airport manager and he landed work behind or another small clan ties didn't

make it and she worried that the that the bullets that might've been ended her cranky outlook prices life well i should tell our audience a just and they were talking about and daughter of the year the resort life of an eu ford and annie afford the head of reasons or in life and now once there is something called the laughs she wants to be part of it was no your the son was only for longer seared into her memory frighten her family owned shoe it's tough for women today it was really tough then and but she ends and our colleagues' persevered talk about the evolution of the laughs and how tough it was for them the army was a slow enough simply to

use airplanes in the first place the resisted for a long time and of the limits of course was arrested court martialed for fridge for senator hart and the thought that women into war or one yes and once the army air corps at the time was assembled the thought that will be part of that was just ludicrous as far as the male stars was concern lots of things happen once the war started we knew or lemonade a hundred thousand pilots was one good estimate there were not going to be enough men to bring in there quickly and there were women out there but really just a few hundred but there were women out there with the skill to arm to fly and what pushed it over the arizona roosevelt as first beijing a newspaper column of the time and she finally urged toward the late summer of nineteen forty two that look we need to look seriously at this and finally a few generals were convinced nancy love and jackie cochran to the premiere fuel fires the time had both lists of every

book available and qualified won't run the country and they had contacted them before and so finally the generals relented and it was no surprise when labor day of nineteen forty two at this little group was granted before there were twenty five because that somewhat and derek space they had a theory at the facility here wellington yes and and delaware or they're going to want to hold this and so over the course of weeks and months a group of twenty one was a sad the men are of two minds number one they were of the mind that this couldn't possibly work these women are going to tell them about the works on the other hand you were twenty five women to date and so the women got very mixed reviews there were some who love the fact you are somewhat hated but they took they already have the skills and the trained they had been in fact they took the train that they knew more because someone had more flying down the navy blue trying in many cases they're trying some of the people

who were you know in a position to trying them now so they're a bit trying to cross before some of the most experienced will pass in the country and they came to the conclusion that we simply have to overlook any golf they took and so they did they lose their job would be to do the best possible work they could as pilots as people in the military or the war officially restore civilian units that was treated as military for convenience but they realized their job was to fly as well as as they could and they did that they prove themselves over the course of the first two monsters michael trial period and they were nude by december answer before the end of the war the deal about a woman falling them because they open the door and it became a life i mean and if it had not been alive before it was a minute with the one he was someone great passion from the time she soared from the time she felt the cold skies a magnet of the clouds it's what she wanted to do with her life than an imagined and

age twenty one twenty two going after colorado first know i used to teach other people to fly and then having that opportunity was with the amount or they wouldn't pay as much as they paid male pilots who did the same thing for airplanes from one place to another they wouldn't they would not it would not commissioned them even though they were commissioning i did a media goal ninety day one is after ninety days and then i days they didn't get permission or they had these uniforms and an awful lot of publicity we get a sense from reading the book that the military even though it had gone along with this road of pressure is now worried that there's going to be some acts and i'm probably going to fail in some way or perhaps that they're going to get so much that it had so much renown that baby and divert attention from what's needed is a war on so has turned into a sauna war bond salesman an

occasional farrier of airplane and the other thing that and that is that there were the scandal two cities one or not permitted to catch a ride back from a basement with a plant like the member like a bit of a transfer was gone back them and go up on that when a law to do that they have so many strikes against them and the press it's hard to imagine now it would be like that the press was all over this place in your times and life magazine and newsreels were all over the baseball is before you ever been the year and finally the er the generals so got the press out of the way and buckled down but that the flights came almost gradually at first it took over a month before they get their first flight but once that happens and they prove themselves there was still wants cornelia's that happen there were quick knee jerk orders that restricted women in flight arm and i suppose that happened all through the war but you could sell the

monster was waiting for the opportunity ran the men a little bit ended yes and and would end and we're having difficulty being with them throughout that period she was in the air on the personal side use either a problem in our life but clinton sentiment following had been married once and every use fell around town that every mother didn't want her daughter to go out with american road and bill mccain she had great affection for him johnny currents is a mysterious figure in the book it's clear to me after reading her letter to him and from a couple well the letters then she was eleven and wanted to get married someday and that and he had survived the war but you know know much about it and he was the big

question mark and this this i would imagine every biographer has got something that eludes him or her and this was mine there was a letter a passionate letter to meningitis letter came back it was unbelievable it was an apo address so seven sisko and his brother served in the south pacific and the letter came back and it was just filled with iowa with her loving he appreciated flying she was wishing i could get away together some time but she didn't talk much about him or any of her bows as she called them sue her friends and so that route of information was unfair and i called every john currence and a cot nine on stage they're fifty two of them and none was the one i want i did not find the relief ayers about the war but no no they were loved it's really so you know she was a lesser sin that there were if there were three men as you know as you mentioned he'd been chief among them both of the others so expressed

interest in marrying her and she may he may well be in the one john occurs if you are one are her death and it comes during a flight she's fallen ill flying in formation no way she volunteers moved the male pilots around or allowing roof there is a collision an airplane false the earth is destroyed and she's she's killed a fuel hear you described it beautifully and nine major news across the country my journalist suspicion leads me to ask you the question whether the mail pilot was not building use a problem not in the book i took that question seriously as annie i took in the book simply because the mythology grew up almost immediately probably down sweet water where the wasps were being formed the group that would follow us and on that he was hot dogging and it was in

six or seven different books that talk about the year in court he always gets a mention books about one fires journal work in such a compelling story and the family believe that story to the more i dove illicit looked realistic and i talked to three the men who are on the flight or six mcneely on that last for business at that point i talked to three them one of them and so may have been waiting fifty years for this phone call no one who have written those books ever talked before i found a fourteen year old girl to time a farm girl who was watching the plans that i asked them all about the man said look at his many years i would like to but there's a saudi official report which did not mention the hot dogging ticket wilbon cover up as the rumor said the fourteen year old girl on the ground and the air force officer who'd conducted the investigation serve put me over the top and i'm convinced that it was a matter of she was trying to learn train a stretcher boundaries to fall and asked her father for so many years and she's just copper smelter boundaries and it cost her a lot of innuendo what sort of person she was among other things she's a

beautiful writer among the lion some of it will run out of time for you can finish that but i'm on the line from a letter to a mother freud in the book well i think it is the essence of this woman and two minutes we have left would you read some of that and as i say we may not finish this is the magic that made me wonder if this book and so to a mother my life has been exceedingly happy thanks to the environment both physical and spiritual that you and that gave me my life has been a rich and full of meaning of love the green pastures in the cities the sun shone on the plains in the rain in the mountains spring time in new york and fog in san francisco of love the multitudinous friends in many places an imminent kindnesses to make i've loved the steak and red wine and dancing and smoking nightclubs self important had waiters to bring the rains of french bread and wine sauce is a new orleans above

the ice cold to severe in the canadian ranchers the camaraderie of skiing in the first option so those are certain front of the fire i loved my blue genes in the great dignity of life on the ranch is about fox hunting even with its snobbish most beloved the prevailing tiredness after six hours of timber topping i dearly love the airport's little and big i love the sky and the planes and yet best of all i love flying for two was a deeply personal possession of the soul i love johnny because he knew a man were flying and i suddenly grander kept my hands because the incitement the inside exciting was too great not to grand isle of the best perhaps because autonomy or self sufficiency the ability to remove myself beyond the keeper of anyone of all and in doing so it taught me what was the value and what was not a timely way of life in the spiritual sense it's how many chairs dignity and integrity and to understand the importance of love and laughter i loved many people in many places and many things and best of all i love life especially power