Imperial Valley press., 1935-08-17
FLYER BRINGS
BODIES BACK
TOFAIRRANKS
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vailing-thick fog and low temper
atures.
Rega<dless Of the warning he
had given the men nov deaG, Cros-
son braved almost he same kind
Of conditions TO start NE bodies Of
his friends on their homev ard
! journey.
His route lay across utterly bar
rem Arctic tundra. wooded marsh
lands. icy wastes. the hea9waters
of the Yukon river. and coast range
| glaciers.
Families To Meet Remains
CroSSon will take their bodies 10
Juneau today. At juneau the bodies
will be placed aboard a passenger
plane of the Pacific-Alaska air
ways and taken 70 Seattle.
The funeral plane will be met in
Seattle by Posts widow who, but
! for a last minute change Of plans,
might have been in her husband S
plane when it nose dived into a
soggy tundra. Rogers widow and
his beautiful daughter, Mary, %.
also were expected to meet the
plane.
Mrs. Rogers and Miss Rogers
were enroute west from Lakewood,
Me, by train. and Mrs. Post leaves
Oklahoma by plane today for Sc
attic. VIII Rogers, Jr.. was enroute
east from Los Angeles by plane.
planning to meet his mother in
Chicago or New York.
Posts body will be taken TO the
farm home of his parents near
Maysville, Okla. where it will be
buried beneath the trees in front
Of the house. His funeral, with boy
hood friends and the neighbors
who knew him before he sky-roek-
eted TO fame in attendance, will be
very simple.
Rogers body will be taken to his
home in Beverly Hills. Calf, where
his intimate friends of the motion
picture world were in the deepest
mourning. Arrangements for his
funeral are pending.
The immediate cause of the ac-
cident that took two lives of ines
timable value to world aviation and
to world amity (Rogers, through
motion pictures, radio, and news
papers dispensed a homely wit that
lighted the hearts of millionS) was
Posts utter confidence in his new
plane and his skill as a pilot.
He took off from an arctic river
I Is miles south of Point Barrow in
heavy fog with a faulty motor. 1t
was a foolhardy gesture, such as
only a supremely expert pilot or
/ the most inexperienced amateur
would undertake. The Lockheed
low-wing monoplane. which had
replaced Posts celebrated plane,
| the Winnie Mae, rose so feet be-
fore the motor missed fire. 1t then
plunged head-on into two feet Of
water, killing its occupants in
stantly.
Grief for the two men transcend
ed their immediate circles of family
and friends. President Roosevelt,
former President Hoover, members
of congress, leading businessmen
and industrialists, rulers of many
countries, world statesmen, all ex-
pressed their sorrow. In London,
Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Tokyo, the
accident that had taken beloved
characters was a subject of intense
interest.
A few hours after a shocked
world learned of the accident, the
| United States senate passed a reso-
luton calling for government pur-
chase of the Winnie-Mae, and soon
afterward the house gave its ap-
proval. The plane, which carried
Post on both his famous flights,
will be placed in the Smithsonian
/ institute. In st. Louis, the Spirit of
st. Louis medal for outstanding
contributions to aviation was
awarded posthumously to Rogers
by the aeronautics division of the
American Society of Mechanical
Engineers.
Death cut Post down in the
midst of his newest efforts to ad-
1 vance aviation. He was experiment.
ing with flights in the stratosphere,
] hoping 10 develop a technique and
! equipment that would shorten the
! air time between the east and west
coasts of the United States to sew
en- hours. His new plane had been
purchased especially for the expert
mentS after four failures in the
Winnie Mae.
Rogers was believed to have left
an estate valued at approximately
IS, 100000.
Post was believed to have died
practically penniless, outside his
] ownership of the wrecked plane
and the Winnie Mae. He earned
great sums, but everything went
back into airplanes and aviation
His widow will receive $4,000 for
the Winnie Mae, the sum congress
appropriated.
The world recalled the exploits
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