Ozark Air Lines

Passengers board an Ozark Air Lines flight at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport in this undated photo by G.D. Fronabarger.

In 1986, Trans World Airlines merged with Ozark Air Lines.

[Ozark Air Lines discontinued service to Cape Girardeau on April 25, 1982. Air Illinois was then the city’s only regularly-scheduled air carrier. Air Illinois had served Cape Girardeau since 1971.]

Jan. 8, 1951 Southeast Missourian

Official Opening Set for Air Line

City officials and community leaders will be on hand at Municipal Airport Tuesday afternoon to extend greetings when airliner service to Cape Girardeau will be formally inaugurated by the Ozark Air Lines Inc.

The program, directed by Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., secretary of the airport board, will begin at 1:10 o'clock and the inaugural plane, bearing officials of the airline and leaders of other communities to be served, will arrive at 1:43 o'clock. The plane will remain for 10 minutes.

Greetings in behalf of the city and community will be extended by Mayor Walter H. Ford, Chamber of Commerce President Leonard A. Byron, Postmaster Nat M. Snider, and others and airline officials will speak. On the inaugural trip to St. Louis and return several local officials will be aboard the plane.

Stamp collectors from all over the nation have sent some 3500 self-addressed envelopes to the post office to be put on the first flight out of Cape Girardeau. Postmaster Nat M. Snider said they are being stamped with a new cachet.

The mail will be put on the first flight plane, scheduled to arrive at Municipal Airport at 7:59 a.m., en route to Memphis. Mr. Snider, city and other officials will make the north-bound flight at 1:49 o'clock.

A closing time schedule for airmail is being drawn up, however, in advance of this Mr. Snider said a letter will have to be in the post office approximately one hour and 20 minutes before any flight in order for the letter to make the plane. Messengers carrying the mail to the airport will leave the post office for the airport 45 or 50 minutes before each flight, Mr. Snider said.

New Air Express

Air Express will be started simultaneously with general passenger service and J. S. Smarr, agent for the Railway Express Agency here, said Cape Girardeau now will connect directly with 1300 cities on airlines; also with other cities which have no airline service. He pointed out that this city is now only 59 minutes from St. Louis, two hours from Memphis, Tenn., and eight hours from New York.

Usual pickup and delivery service will be given on Air Express, Mr. Smarr said, and a contract carrier will meet each plane to bring shipments to the downtown office. In the interest of the new service, M. F. DeBerry of Memphis, sales representative of Railway Express Agency, was here today.

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Jan. 10, 1951 Southeast Missourian

Plane Service Here Levels Off

Cape Girardeau was settling down to three-flight daily airline service today, after Ozark Air Lines, Inc., inaugurated the service at Municipal Airport Tuesday. Appropriate ceremonies were held in the afternoon, before and after a northbound plane came in on the runway.

Two company DC-3 planes made the afternoon flight. The first carried firm officials and other passengers and mail, and the second ship which landed some 20 minutes afterwards carried express. The flight was northbound, from Memphis to St. Louis.

A car of Broadway Cab Co., which has a contract as mail messenger, brought a load of mail for the flight.

An Official Welcome

On hand for the ceremonies were city and other officials. Also, the airline president, Laddie Hamilton, and the board chairman, Barak T. Mattingly, who made the first flight, spoke briefly during the short time the big plane remained in Cape.

Both Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Mattingly voiced appreciation of cooperation received in inaugurating service to Cape Girardeau and the president said the company is looking forward to serving the community for many years.

The significance of airmail, express and passenger service to Cape Girardeau was voiced by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Leonard A. Byron, President W.W. Parker of State College and Postmaster Nat M. Snider.

Agency Represented

The service was hailed officially by Mayor Walter H. Ford, who pointed out that it was another step forward for Cape Girardeau. Speaking in behalf of Railway Express Agency was T.L. Gray, district superintendent from Jonesboro, Arkansas. C.A. McIntyre of St. Louis, assistant general superintendent of airmail service in this district, also spoke.

Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., secretary of the airport board, presided at the ceremonies. Making the flight to St. Louis were Mayor Ford, Postmaster Snider and Dick Brandt.

Bad Weather Conditions

The first flight today, a southbound run which was to have arrived at Municipal Airport at 7:59 a.m., was canceled. At the air office Station Manager Wm. T. Burns said the cancellation was due to flight conditions. There was a possibility the 1:49 northbound afternoon flight would be canceled, he said.

Mr. Burns observed that operations of the airline are based on three factors, in respective order, safety, passenger service and time schedule.

A second section was added to first-day flights Tuesday to accommodate revenue passengers and express. Second section plane followed the first flights by 20 minutes.

Other communities also observed inauguration of the new line's operation with ceremony. The first plane out of Cape, the 8 a.m. southbound flight to Memphis, was simply a mail and express hop, with a few guests of the airline aboard, these representing Air Express and the U.S. Postal Service, also the Illinois Department of Aeronautics.

A Historical Trip

Capts. Russell Fitch and Ed Shine, the pilots, and the stewardess, Miss Jo Bopp, took the plane over the morning run, this ship meeting the inaugural flight plane at Memphis. There, airline officials and city representatives went aboard for the historical trip, the plane accumulating its load of municipal brass and gradually filling to load capacity when it reached Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau turned out the largest welcoming crowd with Jackson and Dyersburg, Tenn., running close behind.

Many at Memphis

All along the line batteries of photographers met the plane, a galaxy of them swarming around it at Memphis. There, going aboard were Postmaster A.L. Moreland of the Dixie city, V.M. Grimsley of Railway Express, H. Abney of the Illinois Department of Aeronautics, G. Freeman, assistant general superintendent of transportation for the U.S. Postal Department; Mr. Hamilton, president of the airline; Mr. Mattingly, chairman of the airline board.

Also on board were Frank Doyle, director of public relations and assistant to the president of the line, and Miss Maxine Whetsler, assistant to the president.

Have Good Airports

The 71 air miles to Jackson ate up but 23 minutes of time and there a crowd and officials awaited. Boarding the plane were Franklin Ivey, county clerk; Mayor George A. Smith and Postmaster Roy Gilbert, and 14 minutes and 39 air miles later the plane's passengers were listening to music by the Dyersburg, Tenn. high school band and greeting Harold D. Keller, chairman of the airport committee, and alderman Paul Bradshaw, who joined the inaugural flight.

Both Jackson and Dyersburg have fine airports, matching facilities pretty well with Cape's big field. Alderman Bradshaw said the Civil Aeronautics Administration was responsible for the development at Dyersburg. A new administration building, built of brick, is nearing completion.

Both these fields have nearly mile-long concrete runways. Jackson's field is several miles from town and Dyersburg's field is close to the city's south limits and along the highway. This is the first airline service for both cities.

Stop at Paducah

It was only 80 air miles and 30 minutes to Paducah's Barkley Field where Chicago & Southern Airlines already give service. City Manager C.R. Moffett, Judge J. Garrison and Assistant Postmaster Albert Wurth joined the flight party after Miss Lillian Hannan, representing the Association of Commerce of Paducah, had presented a miniature airplane built entirely of bright yellow chrysanthemums to Airline President Hamilton.

Paducah's field, named for its distinguished citizen, Vice President Alben Barkley, is about 14 highway miles west of the city and close to the new atom bomb plant site.

100 People Present

From Paducah it's only 24 air miles and 8 minutes to the new Cairo, Illinois field. Brand new paved runways received the plane and a crowd of more than 100 persons welcomed the ship. Dr. Robert Williams, chairman of the Cairo Airport Authority, Postmaster George P. Langan and Brooke Payne of American Airlines, St. Louis, joined the flying party. It is exactly the same flying time from Cairo to Cape as it is from Paducah to Cairo.

All guests returned to their communities on the southbound flight, which began from St. Louis a few minutes after the inaugural plane's arrival.

Express Taken On

The air mileage between Cape and Memphis via the intervening stops is 238 and from Cape to St. Louis 114 miles. An average of 4 to 5 minutes is allowed for stops at each place.

A meal in the air delighted the party just after the takeoff from Memphis, this consisting of four kinds of sandwiches, a salad, coffee or milk, cookies and ice cream, served by Miss Whetsler of the airline office and Stewardess Elwena Anderson. Favors to guest passengers were small gold desk set fountain pens.

All along the route considerable mail and express was taken aboard the DC-3, 22-passenger, ship.