Tales of the Sky

“Maybe it was the barnstormer.

“My grandfather owned a farm near Milaca, MN and I’m told a barnstormer wanted to use his field to give air rides to the locals. My mother was visiting him at the time and wanted to go up. Grandfather agreed to let the barnstormer use his field if he would give my mother a free ride. He did. She was pregnant with me at the time, a fact that distressed my father when he learned of it, but which may have foretold my lifelong fascination with all things ‘airplane,’” Anne said.

As Miss Billingsley, Anne spent four years as a stewardess for Northwest Airlines in the 1950s working on Douglas DC-4s, DC-6s, DC-7s, Boeing B-377 Stratocruisers and Lockheed L-188 Electras; soloed in a Beech 150 in 1976 and snagged rides over the years on a variety of aircraft, including a Piper J3; BT-13 and T-6 military trainers; the B-25 of WWII fame, the supersonic British Airways Concorde and a hot air balloon.

A native of Minneapolis, Anne has spent most of her days firmly anchored to terra firma pursuing careers as a real estate broker and entrepreneur, engaging in community service and raising one son. Annual trips to the Oshkosh air show kept her finger on the aviation pulse. Today she enjoys freelance writing and working part time at the Golden Valley Library, while managing to occasionally explore such diverse places as ancient Machu Picchu in Peru and polar bear habitats on Hudson Bay in the sub arctic. Via air, of course!

Anne is currently working on a memoir about her experiences as a stewardess in the 1950s.

 

Upcoming Book
Hundreds of WWI flyers returned to civilian life with no other skill than flying. Many of them became flying gypsies in the 1920s and 1930s. They bought war surplus aircraft like the JN-4D Jenny for as little as $600 and traveled the countryside, eking out a living taking people up for rides or performing in flying circuses. They called themselves barnstormers.

Upcoming Book
A freelance writer based in Minneapolis, Anne Kerr has recently published Fujiyama Trays and Oshibori Towels, a memoir about her experiences as a stewardess in the 1950s.

book cover

Upcoming Book
The NWA History Centre
www.nwahistory.org

 

 
©2008 Anne Kerr All Rights Reserved.