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I know very little about Grace Anderson as a person, or as a pilot. She was born about 1902. She shows up in the Davis-Monthan Register along with her husband and fellow pilot, Arthur C. Anderson, and she is cited as a competitor in at least one Golden Age air race. If you have information, please let me KNOW.
Grace Anderson landed at Tucson four times, twice as pilot in command and twice as passenger. Her first visit as pilot was on Saturday, February 2, 1935. She carried as passenger her husband in the Monocoupe NC5212. Based at Phoenix, AZ, they were on a round-robin flight back to Phoenix. She noted in the remarks column in the Register, "1st cross country on new private license." So we know approximately when she learned to fly.
Her second landing was on Sunday, April 21, 1935. This time she carried as her sole passenger Mary Louise Graham in the Monocoupe NC526W. Again based at Phoenix, their destination was cited as Tucson. She noted in the remarks column of the Register this time, "Hot dog, didn't get lost." A common exhortation of a still relatively new pilot.
Earlier, she had landed twice as a passenger with her husband as pilot. The dates were August 19, 1929 and December 19, 1931. Both landings were in Monocoupes; the first unidentified and the second identified as NC7326.
About a year after he landings at Tucson, Anderson competed in the 1936 Chatterton Derby (August 29-September 4) as part of the National Air Races (NAR) that year. The route that year was Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Hot Springs, Dallas, Big Spring, El Paso, Douglas, Tucson, Yuma, San Diego, Long Beach, and Los Angeles. The Chatterton Race was held only in 1935 and 1936.
According to this REFERENCE, pages 45-46 and page 62, the itinerary of that derby brought the competitors through Tucson. In the Register, pages 214-215 record August-September, 1936. None of the Chatterton competitors signed. Regardless, page 62 of the reference above has Anderson just footnoted as a participant. She did not place in the money.
Grace and Arthur were prominent Phoenix citizens. He was chief techician for the Electrical Equipment Company of Phoenix, who ran radio station KTAR operating on 620kc. The station started with 100 watts on June 21, 1922. The transmitter equipment was built and installed by Anderson. KTAR is still an operating station.
The Arizona Republic of May 20, 1940 published two articles describing the mid-air crash that took Grace Anderson's life at age 38. The front page headline read, "PHOENICIANS DIE IN PLANE." It was subtitled, "Collision Aloft Causes Fatal Earth Plunge." Below, a photograph that accompanied the article of Anderson's airplane after it crashed on a residential street.
Arizona Republic, May 20, 1940 (Source: AZ Republic via R. Woodling)
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Below, the article, continued in two columns, that accompanied this photograph.
Arizona Republic, May 20, 1940, continued (Source: AZ Republic via R. Woodling)
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Arizona Republic, May 20, 1940 (Source: AZ Republic via R. Woodling)
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Anderson carried as her passenger Ione Norton. Their airplane belonged to Arthur Anderson. The articles do not cite the type of aircraft.
The second article focused on the pilot of the other airplane, Ernest Montgomery, and his three passengers. Their airplane, which lost about two feet of its port wing, but landed successfully, is shown below. Under the circumstances, he did a great job of controlling and landing his airplane.
Arizona Republic, May 20, 1940 (Source: AZ Republic via R. Woodling)
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The second article lead was a quote from pilot Montgomery: "Don't Know What Happened .. I Didn't See.." A photograph of the highly stressed Montgomery, and the text accompanying the second article, are below. You will notice subtle racism in this piece.
Arizona Republic, May 20, 1940 (Source: AZ Republic via R. Woodling)
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