Bessie Owen, ca. 1937 (Source: Owen, 1941)

Raise your hand if you have heard of Bessie Owen....  I thought so. 

Bessie Owen was the 38th of only 42 female pilots to sign the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register.  Owen’s pilot license is cited as number 30,013, not nearly as low as some of the denizens of the Davis-Monthan Register, including Clarence Young (#2), or sister pilots Phoebe Omlie (#199), Mildred Morgan (#326) or Joan Shankle (#417). She was a member of the The Ninety-Nines. There is some indication that she also earned a Transport License. Across several articles in 99s publications, she is cited as having eyesight problems.

Based in Santa Barbara, CA, she arrived at Tucson from Yuma, AZ at 9:45AM on April 23, 1935.  Her airplane was a Waco model UIC, S/N 3778, built on June 24, 1933 and registered NC13423.  She must have been in a hurry, as she departed eastbound to El Paso, TX fifteen minutes later.  She noted in the Remarks column of the Register “Swell field.”

Although she landed once, her airplane visited the Davis-Monthan Airfield twice.  The first time was on September 3, 1933 flown by H.C. Lippiatt.  Lippiatt was a Waco dealer on the west coast.  Soon after this visit, Lippiatt sold it to Earl C. Stewart of Santa Barbara, CA on October 4, 1933.  Owen became the second owner when Stewart sold it to her with 615 accumulated flight hours on February 18, 1935.

Later in the 1930s Bessie Owen flew this very Waco around the world.  It came from the factory with a Continental R-670 engine of 210 horsepower.  It was a four-place airplane.  When new it had a wooden propeller, 7.50 x 10.0 wheels and tires, a tail wheel, extra fuel tanks and leather upholstery.  She flew it that way on her global flight. 

Book Review, Flying & Popular Aviation, August, 1941 (Source: PA)

Less than a year after her Tucson landing, Owen requested authorization for a flight to the Far East, traveling with mechanic Fred B. Novinger (which voyage, one genealogical source says, "set tongues wagging").  She leveraged her trip to the Far East into a circumnavigation of the globe, with the Atlantic and Pacific crossed by ship.  She wrote a book, right sidebar, documenting her adventures entitled “Aerial Vagabond” published in 1941. Image, above, left, of Owen taken in Hong Kong and can be found in her book. Book review, right, from Flying & Popular Aviation (PA) magazine, August, 1941.

Her book is a great read, paralleling in flavor, along a similar route, the earlier book by Richard Halliburton, "The Flying Carpet," published in 1932. Richard Halliburton was an adventurer and raconteur. He was a distant cousin to the (Register signers) Halliburton brothers of the early Oklahoma oil industry, as well as today’s logistics and supply company.  He and Register pilot Moye Stephens flew NR882N, a Stearman C3B.  The Stearman, purchased and prepared especially for their adventure, had a scarlet fuselage with a gold stripe, black cowlings and gold wings and tail. Please direct your browser to the links for additional information about Halliburton, Stephens and the flight of NR882N.

But I digress. At the outset of her voyage, Owen's airplane was shipped to Belgium in January 1936.  On July 24, 1936 Owen advised the U.S. Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) that she had been touring Europe and Northern Africa with it.  She went on across Persia, India and China.  Oddly, she does not mention mechanic Novinger in her book, nor are there any images of him. See the letter below dated February 6, 1937, for a possible explanation.

Further, there is some uncertainty about who her mechanic was, and when/where he was taken on to accompany her. One site visitor provides evidence that she apparently flew her Waco around Europe on her own before recruiting a mechanic in Switzerland, named Henri Magnenat, for the onward flight to the far east. The Magnenat connection is described in the book by Eather cited in the left sidebar.

Regardless of who the mechanic was, they landed in Hong Kong in 1937, and heard of a potential buyer in the Phillipines. They flew there, sold the Waco, and returned to the U.S. by PanAm Clipper service as described in the 1937 letter, below.

Below, Bessie Owen (2nd from left) flanked by the Chief of Police and the Greek Catholic Pope at Pernik before her departure to Sofia. This image faces page 102 of her book. Her Waco is in the background. A hungry dog stands in the foreground. Can anyone IDENTIFY her mechanic in this photograph?

Bessie Owen in Bulgaria, ca. 1936 (Source: Owen, 1941)

Her voyage with Novinger continued to the Philippine Islands where she sold her airplane. Please direct your browser to the link for NC13423 for details on the sale. She returned to the U.S. via Pan American Clipper.

Bessie Owen and Tony LeVier With Beech NC16447, Date Unknown (Source NASM)

Later in the 1930s Owen purchased a Beech Staggerwing, NC 16449 (not a Register airplane). At left, Owen confers with Tony LeVier. The exact date is unknown, but it is probably during the late 1930s (one of the Miami air events? See below) when she was known to have flown the Beech Staggerwing she is sitting on. The image is from the NASM.

She took this airplane to Mexico and Central America, and information from the NASM describes an accident she had with the Beech in Nicaragua early in 1939. The two-page letter, below, from Owen to a Mr. Reining of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority. The letter provides insight into the logistics of repairing a U.S.-registered aircraft in Central America during the late 1930s. Note her mention of "Taca." TACA (Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano) was an early Central American airline founded by Lowell Yerex, who owned at least one Register airplane, the Stinson NC10815.

Her insight, expressed in the February 8th letter, into the transport pilots of the region is also instructional.

Letter to Mr. Reining, Records Division, CAA, page one: "... I came in with my wheels up..."

Bessie Owen's Letter to the CAA, February 8, 1939 (Source: NASM)

Letter, page two: "... this is the damndest place to be stuck..."

Bessie Owen's Letter to the CAA, February 8, 1939 (Source: NASM)

As far as we know, despite the conditions, her airplane was repaired and operational again. The national 99s newsletter for February 1939 published the following report of her journey. She had taken part in the Miami race the month before.

Ninety-Nines National Newsletter, February 1939 (Source: Woodling)

Owen was active in the Ninety-Nines, serving as Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter in 1940, and National Vice President in 1941. As WWII spooled up, she was reporte to be staffing an Air Warning Observation Station for the FOurth Fighter Command somewhere, "on a hill."

Bessie Owen, March 1943 (Source: 99s Museum)

During 1943-44, she taught navigation at Santa Barbara State College. Late in 1944, the 99’s received a letter from her stating that she is living in Mexico, no longer had an interest in aviation and that she was resigning from the organization. Apparently, her eyesight problem finally caught up with her.

Finally, some interesting family history. Owen's family was originally located in Texas going back to the mid-1800s. Bessie's father, Hermann Kohlberg, was born June 8, 1855 and lived, and was probably born, in El Paso, TX (d. July 21, 1916 in San Francisco). He married Doris Meyer whose family was established in San Francisco, CA since goldrush days. Bessie's birth name was Kohlberg.

According to a site visitor and relative, Bessie Kohlberg  was born on December 3, 1895 in San Francisco. She married Leopold Oppenheimer  on October 21, 1917. The marriage ended in divorce, possibly in the early 1930s.  She changed her last name to Owen and performed her flying and writing activities under that name. She died on February 22, 1967 in Mexico. Below, from the same source, an early photograph dated June 12, 1913.

Bessie (Kohlberg) Owen, Far Left, Seated, and Her Extended Family, June 12, 1913, London (Source: Family)

Taken at 59 Abbey Road, London, UK, this Victorian-looking photograph shows Bessie seated at far left. Her mother is seated at far right.

Update of 07/14/10 The letter below is an artifact that comes along once in a while just by chance. It is of great interest, because it dates Owen's presence in the Philippine Islands during her round-the-world flight. It was here that she sold her Waco, as documented above. This letter is shared with us by site visitor Bo Ecker, who discovered it while browsing an antique shop in California.

This letter was written by an unidentified woman named Florence and addressed to another unknown woman, Sarah. The individual named "Parker" is elsewise unidentified, but was undoubtedly Parker Van Zandt as Bob Woodling (right sidebar) discovered, "I'm fairly confident that the letter written by Florence that appears in three parts on the Bessie Owen page was written by Florence Mills Goodspeed, who was Davis Monthan Airfield pilot J. Parker Van Zandt's aunt. So the Parker she refers to is Van Zandt. Van Zandt was working for Pan American Airways in Manila at the time the letter was written.

"The 1930 census shows Van Zandt living with Florence in Chicago, where she was in charge of the Ida Noyes center for women at the University of Chicago. The 1940 census states that she lived in the Philippine Islands in 1935.The Sarah she refers to is likely her younger sister and John Jr. is likely her younger brother."

Continuing, the return address is identified as the Dewey Arms Apartments (see below). It cites Bessie Owen at the bottom of the first page, just above.

The letter gives us insight into Owen's mechanic, regardless of his name, that flew with her. It is little wonder that she hardly mentions him in her book. Note she is described as a "lioness" by Florence.

As well as being relevant to pilot Owen, this letter is a private window into what travel and communication was like in the late 1930s. It also hints at the social order of what might be called in earlier times, "colonials," or perhaps "missionaries" in this case. The "Union Church," founded in Manila in 1914, mentioned on the following page of the letter, is still an active establishment there.

The relatively new Pan American Clipper service from the U.S. was the fastest way at the time to get people and mail to the south Pacific. Now we know how Bessie Owen returned to the United States. Her flight on the Clipper was an 8,000 mile, five leg trip costing $950 one-way. It was a seven-day voyage. Page 3 follows.

As might be expected in a letter that served to send so much information all at once over a long ocean voyage, Florence added handwritten marginal notes just before she mailed it. As well as the notes at the edges of the pages above, Florence added this sentence on the back of her third page. The Vice President she refers to is unknown. Roosevelt's VP at the time of Florence's letter was John Nance Garner, who was long-time married to Mariette Rheiner.

Florence Goodspeed Obituary, Oakland Tribune, March 22, 1952 (Source: Woodling)

Regarding the return address at the top of Florence's letter, the Dewey Arms Apartments were the subject of one of Harry Truman's presidential Proclamations on July 3, 1946. This particular proclamation had to do with the establishment of U.S. Consular offices in the newly independent Philippines. Truman's Proclamation, number 2694, "DESIGNATING PROPERTIES SUITABLE FOR DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS," reads in part as follows.

Florence Goodspeed passed away March 20, 1952. Her obituary is at left from the Oakland Tribune, March 22, 1952 (courtesy of Bob Woodling). A photograph of Florence can be viewed at the University of Chicago Photographic Archive at the link. If anyone has any further insights into her letter, please let me KNOW.

Update of 06/17/11 A site visitor states, "My parents were stationed in Manila in the late 1940s (diplomatic corps) and the Dewey Arms were a popular apartment building for embassy and military personnel in those days. ... Within the letter Bessie writes that many ask of her if she has ever been to Baguio.  Baguio was and is an extremely popular destination for both Philippinos and visitors to the PI.  (My parents, married in Manila in 1949, honeymooned in the US ambassador's resident in Baguio--the mountain retreat.)"

And further, "My father was the assistant air attache for the Philippines in 1949 and my mother was a cryptographer for the state department when they met and married in Manila in 1949.  They were then transferred to Saigon when it was transitioning from French Indochina to 'Vietnam.'  Upon formal recognition of Vietnam we established a diplomatic mission there and my father was the assistant air attache for Vietnam and became the second air force officer ever assigned to Vietnam--May 1950.  Within the diplomatic circles, they had many parties and functions with the local elite, to include the president of both the PI and emperor of Vietnam. (My dad actually had gone tiger hunting with the emperor in Vietnam!)" See the Willey Collection for another example of tiger hunting.

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Dossier 2.4.4

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 07/19/07 REVISED: 02/26/08, 03/13/08, 02/22/10, 07/14/10, 09/12/11, 07/14/14, 11/20/17