Mary Alice Putnam Vandeventer

Lueders, TX

Local WASP and Congressional Gold Medal recipient, Mary Alice Putnam Vandeventer, took final flight to a celestial destination, Tuesday, January 28, 2014; she was 90. Services are Saturday, February 1st, in the Lueders Methodist Church in Lueders, TX (visitation 10 - 11 am; funeral service 11 am), followed by graveside services and military honor guard at Throckmorton Cemetery at 2:00 pm under the direction of Tankersley Funeral Home of Stamford.

Mary Alice was born a redhead in a West Texas sandstorm to Thomas Rogers and Eunice (Smart) Putnam in their Lueders home on March 18, 1923. Reared in Lueders, the banker's daughter daydreamed of movie stardom in news reels and flying machines like Amelia Earhart. Childhood summers at the Putnam Ranch in Throckmorton County and at Eagle Nest, New Mexico, kindled her love of nature and travel. In high school she played basketball, the trombone, jitter-bugged at Buttermilk Tavern in Anson, and took flying lessons from a crop duster at Stamford, TX. The young pilot earned her wings in college at a Love Field flight school in Dallas. Graduating from Lueders in 1940, Mary attended SMU and graduated from Texas State College for Women in Denton (now TWU), with BA in Speech and Theater-and high hopes of Broadway or the silver screen.

During WWII a Life Magazine cover story about the Women Air Force Service Pilots training at Sweetwater sent Tom Putnam and his daughter to Avenger Field to interview with Jacqueline Cochran, famed pilot and WASP Director. Cochran waved the 21 age restriction for Mary, one monthshort, and Mary joined the class of 44-W-7. Nicknamed "Put-Put", she was one of 1830 accepted from the 25,000 women applicants between 1943 and 1944, and only 1074 to complete the rigorous training to become the first women to fly US military aircraft. Mary flew Stearman, AT6, PT19, UC-78 and C-45. She was stationed at Eagle Pass and Moore Field on the Texas-Mexico Border, where she ferried planes and towed gunnery targets, until December 20, 1944, when WASP were disbanded by a thank you letter from General Hap Arnold, U.S. Army Air Force. WASP hitch-hiked and paid their own way home. Their records were sealed and unavailable to historians until the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996. By then half the fly-girls were deceased. WASP received military status along with the Tuskegee Airmen by Congressional Act in 1977 and a Congressional Gold Medal on March 10, 2010 in Washington DC. Mary reconnected with fly-girl pals at WASP Reunions and global tours-she explored Africa and traveled five continents-and told the WASP story as an advisory board member of the National WWII WASP Museum at Sweetwater. She served as "the local WASP."

After the war ended, Mary traveled with sister Maurese Vinson across California, and taught briefly at Lueders before acceptance to The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in the spring of 1946. Off to the Big Apple during the hey-day of Broadway Musicals-South Pacific, Guys & Dolls, and George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess. Mary returned to Texas and joined American Airlines in Dallas 1948-52. No, not as a pilot. Women were still prohibited from piloting commercial aircraft. Disappointed, Mary declined being a "a glorified waitress on a flyin' bus" and was a reservationist rooming with two "stews" in Dallas.

In 1951 she married Bob Vandeventer of WBAP radio in Dallas. An ABC Radio newsman during the war with Paul Harvey in St. Louis, Bob became News Director for WFAA-TV, the first television in Dallas. They had two daughters, Teresa and Sheri.

In 1965 Mary returned to Lueders with her tween girls and updated teaching credentials at Abilene colleges. She taught 6th through 8th grade English and History, coached Jr. High Basketball, and settled on 5th Grade, before she taught High School Drama for UIL Competition. Her theater students went to State one year. In 1979 she was recognized as the Memorable Teacher and retired in 1983 to serve on school board several years. In 2010 the City of Lueders changed her address to Vandeventer Street in honor of her Congressional Medal.

Locally, Mary was Secretary of the American Legion Post in Lueders for many years, and was a lifetime member of the National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater. She was active in her church, Methodist Northwest Council, and lived independently in the home where she was born until November 2013. She deeply loved numerous cats and one dog that didn't "talk back".

She is survived and missed by many: daughters Teresa Dominy of Potosi TX, and Sheri Vandeventer (husband Dave Seltenrich) of Valley Center, CA; grand-daughters Joni Dominy McKinnon (Rich McKinnon), Julia Mills Watkins (David Watkins); five great grandchildren Kaitlyn Bone, Kyler Bone, Corbyn Mills, Alora Mills, and Keelan McKinnon, two nieces and two nephews and numerous Putnam cousins from Albany and across the state. Pall bearers are Sam Vinson, Jerry Shiever, Dave Seltenrich, Sandy Davis, John Putnam and Robert Putnam.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National WASP WWII Museum, 210 Avenger Field Rd, PO Box 456, Sweetwater, TX 79556 or online at waspmuseum.org.