4. Letter, James Kacarides to Airport Authority, 13 April 1970; Memphis Press-Scimitar, 5 May 1981.
5. Letter, W. M. Fletcher for the Airport Authority to James Kacarides, 16 February 1981, Kacarides Collection. This small room, containing clippings and trophies, has since been edited down to a poorly lit window hidden behind the stairs.
6. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 28 October 1980. Rumors of alcoholism wafted around Phoebe from time to time. Her erstwhile biographer, Gene Scharlau, tried her best to track them down through interviews with Phoebe’s friends and colleagues. Friend Elaine McClure believed Phoebe had started drinking “Coca-cola highballs” to ease the pain from her various ankle injuries. McClure discounted the rumors of alcoholism, saying that Phoebe “didn’t have enough money to drink on,” since she could only afford one meal a day. Scharlau contacted Dr. Jean Woerner, who signed Phoebe’s death certificate, about the issue. Woerner replied that Phoebe had died of lung cancer, and “acute alcoholism had nothing whatsoever to do with her demise.” Scharlau interview with Elaine McClure, 1982, IWASM; Copy of death certificate with attached letter from Dr. Woerner in Ninety-Nines Museum.
7. Letter, James Kacarides to the editor, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 1 November 1980.
8. Ibid., 9 December 1980.
9. Letter, Carolyn Sullivan to the editor, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 16 December 1980.
10. Commercial Appeal, 19 December 1980.
11. Letter, Jack K. Barker of the FAA to Thomas L. Campbell, secretary Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, 10 February 1981, Kacarides Collection.
12. Letter, James Kacarides to W. M. Fletcher, 20 February 1981, Kacarides Collection.
13. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 5 May 1981; copies of letters in Kacarides Collection.
14. John M. Fowler, General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation to Rep. James J. Howard, Chairman Committee on Public Works and Transportation, U.S. House of Representatives, 8 March 1982, Kacarides Collection.
15. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 8 June 1982.
16. S.896 introduction with accompanying remarks in Congressional Record, 7 April 1981, S3542–3543; Memphis Press-Scimitar, 8 April 1981, 8 June 1982.
17. U.S. senator Howard Baker, “Washington News Update,” July 1982, Kacarides Collection.
18. Letter, James Kacarides to Rep. Harold Ford, 9 May 1981, Kacarides Collection.
19. Letter, W. M. Fletcher to James Kacarides, 9 August 1982, Kacarides Collection.
20. Memphis Press-Scimitar, 31 August 1982.
21. Letter, James Kacarides to W. M. Fletcher, 10 November 1982, Kacarides Collection.
22. FAA southern region administrator Doug Murphy Sr.; FAA leadership developer Bob McMullen, and FAA southern region communications and public affairs manager Kathleen Bergen, conference call with author, 1 July 2010.
23. Thanks to the efforts of George T. Wilson and Pat Thaden Webb, who nominated her; the sponsorship of Wilson Air in Memphis; and Bob Minter, founder and chairman of the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, Sevierville, Tennessee.
24. Letter, James T. Kacarides to the editor, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 1 November 1980.
Afterword
1. Following the wishes expressed in Phoebe’s will, found among her papers, the sorted materials were returned to Memphis. The papers, scrapbooks, and photographs are archived in the Memphis Room of the Memphis Public Library. The three-dimensional objects now belong to the Memphis Pink Palace Museum. Items I acquired in my research have also been placed in these two repositories. Phoebe’s scattered possessions, to the extent to which we could collect them, are now home in Memphis.
Bibliography
Archives and Collections
Benson Ford Research Center, Dearborn
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park
Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority
Memphis Public Library and Information Center
Minneapolis Public Library
Minnesota Historical Society
National Archives
Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots, Oklahoma City
Pink Palace Museum, Memphis
Quad Cities Airport Archives, Davenport
Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham
Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville
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Emma Jean Whittington Hall
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Deloris Navrkal
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Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times
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Index