ANN's Own Rose Dorcey Steals The Show

Rose Dorcey, President of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame (WAHF), was the guest speaker in Sparta Wisconsin for the Deke Slayton Memorial Space & Bike Museum's first tea time of the season, Bit of Wisconsin, September 30, 2004.

Rose, a member of WAHF's speakers' bureau, began her presentation to over 60 attendees by explaining the mission and goals of the Hall of Fame.  She continued with Wisconsin aviation history with the first pilots, including Ruth Harmon.

Ruth was a fascinating persistent young woman, she saw an airplane fly when she was 18 years old, in 1931, and decided right then and there to learn to fly.  She sold her cherished bicycle for $10.00 to pay for her first flight lesson.  She then sold her old toys, clothes, and even last winter's coat to pay for additional lessons.  After high school, she used monetary graduation gifts and took a factory job to continue her flight training.  She earned her pilot's certificate on March 16, 1932.  By 1936 she had earned commercial and flight instructor certificates, "I wanted to teach others to fly because I loved it so much myself," she said.  In 1940 she became the first woman to manage a Wisconsin airport, the Kenosha airport.

The Deke Slayton Memorial Space & Bike Museum hosts 4-5 fund raising tea times per year.  All teas include educational programming plus taste tempting varieties of teas and scrumptious menus of tea sandwiches and desserts.  For more information on the tea times or Museum, contact Kay Bender at 608-269-0033.  For more information on the WAHF and WAHF speakers' bureau, contact Rose Dorcey at 608-836-9840

FMI: www.spartan.org/dekeslaytonmuseum