Stearman Trainers for the U.S. Military
“Wichita, Kansas, 1942: The Year Many of Us Were Born” has generated comments drawn from family history and other resources. Click on the underlined title to see the original story. Then, please send us your family stories from 1942, which will be included with the others below.
Thanks to Barb Hammond for locating the photo at the top of this story from WichitaPhotos.org. The caption on the photo is “Building Trainers for the Army and Navy at the Stearman Aircraft Division of the Boeing Airplane Company in Wichita” (1944)
Glenna Stearman Park
Stearman Aircraft’s most successful product, the Model 75 “Kaydet,” ultimately became the primary aircraft trainer for the U.S. military during World War II. A total of 10,626 Kaydets were manufactured in the US during the 30’s and 40’s, many at the Boeing plant in Wichita.
Melvyn Richardson
Melvyn was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma and remembers being told that soon after his birth
in 1942, his mother (who was the youngest of eight children) moved to Wichita with one of her sisters and went to work at Boeing. Melvyn’s father was in the Army and the Boeing job was necessary as well as being important to the war effort. Melvyn and his mother lived in Planeview with many others who came to Wichita for exactly the same reason. Planeview was built with Federal funds outside of Wichita city limits to provide temporary housing for war workers. The development included three grade schools, a combined junior and high school and a central business district. The
schools were integrated, the housing was not.
Marilyn Tompkins Bellert
My dad was hired at Beech Aircraft not long after he graduated from Friends University in May, 1941. Holding an “essential” job kept him out of the Armed Services until early 1945. The photo at right was taken at Easter 1945, when he was home on leave after Basic Training. That’s me at age 2 1/2 with him. In 1941- 1942, my mom was employed at the Nifty Nut House, where she had worked while attending North High and then Friends University. After my parents married, the policy forbidding enrollment of married or pregnant women forced her to leave Friends U.
Barbara Hammond
This story strikes a familiar chord. My dad left the University of Nebraska and came to Wichita in 1939 to get a job in the Engineering Department at Stearman Aircraft Company, which had been incorporated into the Boeing Airplane Company in 1938. In November of 1940 he went home to Nebraska for a quick visit, married my mom and brought her back to Wichita. The rest is history.
Speaking of history, here’s a bit of evidence for the speed at which Wichita was expanding to accommodate the impending war effort: Wichita Eagle, June 13, 1938. “New enlargement of engineering department of Stearman division of Boeing Airplane Company has been completed at cost of $25,000. Room has been doubled in size to more than 5000 square feet and is air-conditioned.”
You can find links to your own history at “The Tihen Notes” website. It contains years of notes taken from newspaper articles. https://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/local_history/tihen/index.asp
Eugene Carter
My dad was in a tank crew at the end of World War I, so I think he was
too old to serve in WW II. He’d joined the Kansas State Highway Department fixing state roads near Wichita. He also met my mom, a librarian in Winfield. They married in 1932 and bought a small house in 1937 on South Ash where they lived 35 years, the rest of their lives. My birth announcement in 1941 hailed me as Engineering Project Number One. I was also the last one. Typical of the times, Dad preferred that Mom not work as she’d take a job from a man supporting a family.
During World War II, babies were issued Ration Books, just like adults. Gene shared a copy of his first one. Ernest Eugene Carter is described as 2 feet in height, 13.5 pounds in weight, blue eyes, red hair, 4/12 years, and male.
Diane Rusch Zinn
Without knowing the exact dates, I’m guessing my dad, who was a 
captain in the Army, was either already stationed in Alaska or in the preparatory stages for going there. He had completed an officers training course in Squadron Communications at Scott Field, IL in early October, 1942. Since I was born in October, 1942, my mom was obviously pregnant most of that year and not employed, of course. Most of the time that year she was living with her mom at 238 S. Grove, right across from East, and also the house where she was born.
Barbara Hammond
This 1946 photo was taken at the Blue Moon Ballroom, located on North Oliver near Boeing. It’s a group of Boeing employees enjoying a night out. My mom is the woman at front, right. My dad is the tallest man standing at the back; he was 6’4″. Mom was 29 and dad was 30.
Apparently my dad had this photo folder on his desk at work. It’s his handwriting at top that says, “Don’t! – This Belongs To Hammond. Cost Me One Buck! 6/23/46”
(Who’s Next? How about You?)
