Legacy of Flight
By Loretta Fulton
Recipients of Civil Air Patrol’s Cornelia Fort Flight Scholarship may have to do some online research to find out just who Fort was. An incredible story awaits those who do. She was in the air over Hawaii instructing one of her student pilots Dec. 7, 1941, when they were forced to land as Japanese fighter planes filled the sky that fateful day.
Lt. Col. Richard Flowers, a distant relative, grew up hearing her story and today can honor her and the organization he loves and serves—Civil Air Patrol. Flowers, also a CAP Foundation board member, and his wife, Beth, donated funds to establish the new flight scholarship for cadets in her honor.
Flowers’ famous relative was a Civil Air Patrol member at a time when female pilots were still a novelty. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), which later merged with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment, and was eventually renamed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)—famous for transporting military aircraft from fighters to bombers during World War II.
Fort was born into an affluent Tennessee family in 1919 and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 1939. She returned to society life in Nashville after college but soon discovered the thrill of flying.
Family lore says Rufus Fort warned his sons not to become pilots, but apparently, he failed to pass on that warning to his daughter. She took her first flying lesson in 1940 and a year later became a flight instructor.
“She certainly ripped the blinders off a lot of people,” Flowers said.
She worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s civilian pilot training program, first in Fort Collins, Colorado, and then in Hawaii. By 1942, she was part of the WAFS and was serving in Long Beach, California, when she began her fatal journey ferrying a BT-13A to Dallas.
On March 21, 1943, Fort perished in an aircraft accident in a remote stretch of west Texas close to Sweetwater, near Avenger Field. A state historical marker was placed at the crash site in 2000. One passage notes Fort’s sentiments shortly before her death at age 24.
Lt. Col. Richard Flowers has established a CAP flight scholarship honoring his late cousin, Cornelia Fort (pictured), who died during World War II.
“I am grateful that my one talent, flying, was useful to my country,” she said. It was that story and Fort’s dedication to flying and to her nation that Richard Flowers grew up hearing and reading about. His grandfather, Henry Fort Flowers, was a second cousin to Rufus Fort, Cornelia’s father.
“I’m probably her third cousin once removed,” Flowers said.
That’s close enough for Flowers to be proud of the name and legacy. Her distant cousin, Flowers, also is a man of many talents, including earning a private pilot certificate and serving as a glider instructor. He earned a civil engineering degree from Virginia Military Institute and later added a master’s in business administration from Vanderbilt University and a law degree from Ohio Northern University.
He used all those degrees, retiring from his legal career in 2012. And he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, primarily its reserve force, from 1969-1980.
Flowers lives in Florida, where he is assistant communications officer for Fort Lauderdale Composite Squadron 337. He believes he owes much to CAP, which he joined in 2004.
“This is just another example of how Rich serves our nation and our CAP community. His service as a volunteer airman, his contribution as a CAP Foundation Board member, and now his financial support in memory of his cousin is a testament to his spirit of service,” said Rajesh Kothari, CAP Foundation chair.
“We are thankful to the Flowers family for bringing Cornelia’s legacy to light. What’s exciting is an annual flight scholarship will be provided for a cadet honoring Cornelia’s legacy. This means our cadets will know her name and her story well into the future,” said Kristina Jones, the foundation’s president and executive director.
A biography written by Rob Simbeck sparked an even deeper respect in Flowers for his “third cousin once removed.” The book, “Daughter of the Air: The Brief Soaring Life of Cornelia Fort,” sealed Flowers’ desire to honor her the best way he could think of.
He hopes the scholarship bearing Cornelia Fort’s name will spark an interest—and respect—in others, as well. “It will remind them of the diversity of our membership,” Flowers said, “and why that’s important.”
Family lore says Rufus Fort warned his sons not to become pilots, but apparently, he failed to pass on that warning to his daughter. She took her first flying lesson in 1940 and a year later became a flight instructor.