AN AMAZING LIFE
Jay Smith, Executive Editor
jays@modelaircraft.org
IN MY OCTOBER COLUMN, I would normally be discussing building. However, I’m going to talk about one of the people who helped “build” and shape me into who I am today—my great-aunt Betty!
Some readers will be familiar with Betty’s story. She was a Curtiss Cadette and worked at the plant in Columbus, Ohio, that built the Helldiver during World War II. Being someone who loved aviation, I was always interested in learning more about her accomplishments, as well as those of the other cadettes.
I always made it a point to send her anything I could find about the Helldiver, the pilots’ manual she helped update, models, books, etc. It worked out that these gifts led the daughter of one of the cadettes to write a book about them. Flying Into Yesterday: My Search
for the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Engineering Cadettes, by Jean-Vi Lenthe, featured several of the women, as well as my aunt, on the cover. She can be seen lying on the wing (third from the left). I reviewed the book in the pages of the March 2012 Model Aviation.
A few of you were kind enough to send things to her, such as an art print, model airplane, and a piece of the carrier deck from which the Helldiver flew. Betty was interviewed by the Smithsonian Institution, the National WWII Museum, and a handful of news outlets that were eager to learn more, as I have been throughout my life.
Aunt Betty left us on July 26, 2021, after 98 years of living a wonderful life. Her departure has impacted my family greatly, just as she did in life. Thank you to everyone who sent her things or inquired about her throughout the years. It is greatly appreciated.
