Pioneering pilot, South Texas resident Maxine Edmondson Flournoy dies at 102

Maxine Edmondson Flournoy spent her life reaching new heights. She earned her pilot’s license in 1941 and two years later was recruited into the Women Airforce Service Pilots, which led to a lifelong love of aviation and friendships. Flournoy died on April 5 at 102 years old.

Born March 30, 1921, in Wheaton, Missouri, Maxine Edmondson graduated from high school in 1939 and began attending the local community college.

"Joplin Junior College in Joplin, Missouri, offered a course in learning how to fly and I thought it sounded good, so I signed up for it," she told the Caller-Times in 2021.

Through that program she earned her pilot’s license. Then while working in a factory making dies for bullet shell casings in 1943, a recruiter with the WASP reached out.

The WASP was a civilian women’s service organization that trained women as pilots for service in World War II. Their duties included ferrying aircraft around the country, towing aerial targets, delivering cargo and training male pilots. The only difference in their training compared to that of men was the lack of combat training.

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Training was done at the Sweetwater Army Air Field in Sweetwater, Texas. Afterward, she was assigned to Hondo Army Air Field where she routinely flew AT-6 Texan trainers, B-25 Mitchell bombers, twin-engine Beechcrafts, the B-29 Superfortress and BT-15s.

Daughter Betty Fields described how her mother would take Army Air Corps navigation cadets on their final exam flight.

“She would fly four cadets with desks on the plane and the cadets would navigate by the sun to Los Angeles,” Fields said. “Then they would return at night as the navigation pilots would navigate back using the stars, my mother using their coordinates.”

She served 18 months until the end of World War II.

When the WASPs were disbanded, she sent out her resume and was contacted by an oil company in Alice, an oil boom town in the ‘40s. As Fields tells it, the owner kept telling his friend Lucien Flournoy he needed to come out and meet his new company pilot.

“Dad thought (his friend) was just bragging because he had a pilot on his staff,” Fields said. He neglected to tell Flournoy it was because his company pilot was an accomplished young woman.

"We met there in Alice and it didn't take me long at all to realize that she was a classy, intelligent and obviously attractive woman," Lucien Flournoy told the author of his biography in 2002. "I was drawn to her, and I went after her, really, to be real honest about it."

The two married June 29, 1947, and had three daughters. The family lived in Alice and ran Flournoy Drilling Co. and Alice Aviation for decades.

Flournoy rediscovered her love for flying in the 1960s, flying a family-owned Cessna 337. Flournoy would get together with her WASP friends and fly together to reunions around the country. Her family would accompany her to some of the reunions.

“They were a lot of fun ladies,” said Fields. They were very patriotic, very tough, never complained, Fields remembered.

And when her daughters lived in Houston and Austin, she would fly up for the day to visit.

“She was a very good pilot,” recalled Fields. “She did all her instrument checks, never flew in dangerous weather, just very good.”

Her faith was important to her mother, Fields said. She was a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church of Alice, and later First Presbyterian Church in Corpus Christi.

Flournoy served as a commissioner of the Texas Historical Commission, and was appointed to the USO national Board of Governors by then-President Jimmy Carter. She was active with the local USOs in Corpus Christi and Ingleside for many years.

She was the president of the WASP association from 2000 to 2002. When the Flournoys were retiring, Lucien and Maxine donated the Alice Aviation hangar to the Third Coast Squadron Commemorative Air Force. The group relocated to Aransas Pass but renamed the squadron in Flournoy’s honor in 2004.

In March 2010, WASPs were finally honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor. Previously, WASPs were not even granted military status until 1977, a battle they fought for 33 years. Flournoy traveled to Washington along with other WASPs, who each received a bronze replica of the medal. The original is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Flournoy is survived by three daughters, Mary Anne Guthrie (Greg Guthrie), Betty Louise Fields (Byron Fields), Helen Ruth Pope (Bill Pope); 10 grandchildren, Ben Guthrie, Rachel Johnson (Jason), David Guthrie, Grace Hillestad (Ryan), Byron Fields (Anne), Beckham Fields (Amanda), Claire Craig (Stewart), John Pope (Stephanie), Daniel Pope (Bonnie), and Brian Pope; 18 great grandchildren; and her brother, Phil Edmondson. She is preceded in death by her husband, Lucien Flournoy, and granddaughter Anne Elizabeth Guthrie.

Fields and the rest of the family have been very touched at the outpouring of love from friends.

“Even old friends from Alice came into Corpus at such short notice,” Fields said.

“What a blessing to live to 102 years old.”

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Pioneering pilot, South Texas resident Maxine Flournoy dies at 102