Martie Bowman, Date Unknown
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Martie Bowman landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield twice.
The first time in an Inland Sport, registry NC252N; the second
time in a Waco A, registry NC12449. On neither visit did she
write a date or time, but, from the nearby entries of her
fellow pilots, she was there on August 24, 1931 the first
time. She was inbound from Phoenix headed for Cleveland.
The second visit was either April 21 or April 28th 1932 (westbound
from El Paso). On this day, she was part of a flight of two
with her husband, Les Bowman, flying another other Waco.
She kept fast company. On her visit in 1931, signed-in to
the register (link
to page) next to her were Phoebe
Omlie (also headed to Cleveland), Gladys O’Donnell, Jean LaRene
and Ruth Stewart (all headed to Douglas, AZ). Listed just
below them, on the same day, was Z.D.
(Zantford) Granville. He was flying GeeBee NC46V.
Ms. Bowman was a competitive air racer, as this earlier
quote from the August 25, 1930 New York Times indicates:
“Mrs. Bowman Ahead at Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 24 (AP) –
Mrs. Martie Bowman of Hempstead,
L.I., the first of the contestants in
The Women’s Dixie Air Derby to
reach Memphis, landed at the
Municipal Airport at 4:29:21
o’clock this afternoon.
Mrs. Phoebe Omlie of Memphis
came in about three minutes later.
Miss Omlie still leads Mrs. Bowman
in elapsed time from Washington by
nearly two hours.” |
A remarkable finding is that both of the airplanes flown
by Ms. Bowman are currently registered with the FAA (as of
January, 2001). The Waco is a UBA model, S/N 3600. It was
last registered on 5/20/1999, and is owned by an individual
in Zanesville, OH. The Inland is a model W500, S/N W-512.
It was manufactured in 1929. It presently has a Warner Scarab
series engine of 125 HP installed. An individual in Simpsonville,
KY owns it.
The photograph below is shared with us by friend of dmairfield.org, John Underwood. L to R are Martie's husband, Les, Martie and C.C. Ludlow. The airplane is Waco INF NC625Y, S/N 3368 (not a Register airplane).
Les Bowman, Martie Bowman & C.C. Ludlow, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Underwood)
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The Bowmans had one daughter, Marnie, born September 6, 1920. Marnie passed away March 7, 2012. A Web tribute to Larnie Bowman was decommissioned by her daughter who sent me a PDF of her Web tribute for exhibit from this page. You may view that Web tribute to Larnie Bowman at the link (PDF 506kB).
Born on March 22, 1901, Marguerite E. "Martie" Bowman
flew West on Friday, October 4, 1985.
Dossier 2.4.14
THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 05/05 REVISED: 03/10/06, 09/30/07, 10/08/07, 01/22/10, 09/10/16, 01/25/23
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