Miss Bettis         Al. Litzenberger Ithrene Bettis McGregor Collection of Carolyn Peat, 9-14-05

 

LETTER FROM ITHRENE BETTIS

 

1021 Lapeer Ave., Port Huron, Michigan           48060 July 20th, 1967

Mr. Herbert F. Miller, 5120 Caste Drive, Pittsburgh, Penna. Dear Mr. Miller: I am in receipt of your letter of July 10th and will be most happy to have you pay me a visit the first week of September. If you know the exact date, would you please let me know so that I will be sure to be at home. Stramge as it may seem, I well remember D. Barr Peat as he was so very gracious to me when I attended the dedication of "Bettis Field". After the dedication, a Reception and Banquet to Government officials, the personnel of the various Government Flying Units and other distinguished Guests to Commemorate the Naming of the McKeesport Airport, "Bettis Field" was held at the Penn McKee Hotel, McKeesport, Pa. I have a record of those who attended. Mr. Peat's signature and the signature of a C. Albert Ball are on the list. These are perhaps your friends which you mention in your letter. There was a young lady by the name of Flora M. Forbes of Dravosburg, Pa., who was also very nice to me. I think she was one of the persons who met me at the Pittsburg Station. If you are planning on going to the spot where my brother's plane fell, a report from Lewistown said he was found on the north side of Jack Mountain, five miles from that town. A plane was seen to fall by a farmer's wife and a search was made of the south side of the mountain without success. Later two young farmers found the wrecked plane on the north side on a flat area of ground. I do have several newspaper clippings and can no doubt furnish you with some information. I have never been back to the field since the dedication but saw pictures of it at the Chicago World's Fair several years ago and they were really good looking. Will look forward to seeing you in September.

 

Yours very sincerely,

(Ithrene Bettis McGregor)

 

Blanche Noyes, D. Barr Peat, Flora Forbes Peat. Collection of Carolyn Peat, 9-17-05

FLORA M. FORBES via email from Carolyn Peat, 11-17-05 Daughter of D. Barr Peat & Flora M. Forbes      Mother was very much a part of the early Bettis Field. At the beginning of the airline, March 27, 1926, the airline and the airport was one entity. After they were separated and the airport company was sold, Dad took his money and started another airport, Issoudun, near Stow, Ohio. In those days school teachers could not be married and keep teaching. She taught school for ten years and quit teaching to go with him to Issoudun.      She is pictured on the A Place in the Sky web site, unidentified, in Images, D. Barr Peat, Peat 5, when she was still Flora Forbes. She had fifty hours of solo time in an open cockpit "Bird" biplane. When their first son was born she decided one of them should keep both feet on the ground and it would be her. While both women are from McKeesport, mother soloed at Issoudun the day before Helen Ritchey soloed at Bettis Field. (1930)

 

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