More Than One Hundred WASP Gravesites Were Decorated During Memorial Day Weekend Visits

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were remembered and honored for their service this past Memorial Day weekend when gravesites were visited and decorated by Women in Aviation International (WAI) members and friends. Graves from Connecticut to California were decorated and photos and videos were posted and shared on social media tagged #HonorTheWASP. A contingent of WAI members and friends decorated a multitude of WASP graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

 
“What was reinforced this weekend was that each WASP holds an intriguing life story,” says WAI president Peggy Chabrian. “From WASP Eleanor Feeley Lawry who was the first woman to earn a pilot’s license at Danbury [Connecticut] Airport and the 100th woman to earn a pilot’s license in Connecticut to Utah WASP Frances Green Kari who post-war became a wingwalker with Sammy Mason airshows and later a police officer, the WASP lived fascinating and pioneering lives, and today and always, we thank them for their service.”

There was some sadness in the visits as well. One woman, having visited a rural cemetery wrote, “I found her gravesite to be a little sad. It’s a tiny place, not well maintained. And though they had flags on the veterans’ graves, she did not get one (until I put my mini-flag there).” Those sad moments, though, were balanced by another visit where the gravestone of Texas WASP Lillian Moore Conner’s husband which faces hers was engraved with this message: “Ah Lillian, How We Used to Dance!”
 
The couple who visited WASP Mary Elizabeth Trebing’s grave in Boulder, Colorado, reported that she died, at age 23, in a forced landing during a ferry flight, and added, “She rests now with her mom and dad in a very peaceful place, under the trees.” One WAI member summed up the #HonorTheWASP experience by saying, “It was a privilege to participate.”

(Image provided with WAI news release)

FMI: www.wai.org