'Line girl' dressed in hotpants, go-go boots greets pilots

Back in 2010, when I put together a time line of the history of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, I made no mention of the hiring of a "line girl" or "ground hostess" by Cape Central Airways in 1972.

I can't imagine overlooking the article while doing the research. The photos taken by Gordon McBride, after all, were pretty memorable. He used only three photos with the feature. A number of other photos of line girl Virginia Fowlkes have been gathered in a photo gallery.

Published Thursday, June 29, 1972, in the Southeast Missourian:

Virginia Fowlkes is a "ground hostess" at Cape Central Airways here, but her duties keep her flying most of the time. Here, her blonde hair wind-blown, Fowlkes takes a gasoline order from a pilot, Ron Roddy of Grand Prairie, Texas. (Gordon McBride ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

WELCOMES SMALL AIRCRAFT WITH SMILE, SIGNALS

'LINE GIRL' ADDS ZIP TO AIRPORT RUNWAYS

By SALLY WRIGHT BROWN
Missourian staff writer

Aviation has changed since Amelia Earhart first got her wings.

And all those changes haven't been in the clouds, either. One of them has been at Municipal Airport here where small aircraft drop out of the clouds at an altitude of 12,000 feet and onto runways to be greeted by a trim blonde clad in hotpants and a shiny white helmet rather than the usual drab mechanics coveralls. Underneath that helmet is Miss Virginia Fowlkes, a State College junior majoring in speech and theater who is doubling this summer as a "line girl" for Cape Central Airways. And on or off runways, Virginia is attracting a lot of attention in her red, white and blue hotpant uniform and white patent boots.

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Fowlkes of Charleston, Missouri, begins her fourth week on the job Friday, and, she says, "I think it's great." The idea to have a ground hostess or "line girl" at Cape Central Airways came about as a public relations idea and to promote gasoline sales, and Virginia is on duty from noon until 5 p.m. six days a week.

But Virginia has much more to do than just smile. She meets small aircraft as they taxi in, gives them parking instructions via standard aviation hand signals and takes fuel orders.

Strategy works

Does the strategy of having a vivacious blond welcome pilots to the airport really work? "Generally, yes," Virginia reveals. "Most pilots really don't expect to see a girl out there. Some large airports have line girls, but few small ones do. Anyway," she smiles, "if a girl's out there directing planes in, pilots are more likely to say top 'er off." That, for civilians, means "fill 'er up."

What's the conversation like, out there on a runway dwarfed by an airplane many times her size? "I usually ask the pilot how his flight was -- things like that," Virginia notes. "Oh, I get all kinds of cute comments, but I don't mind. I like the job and I think getting out and meeting people helps me with my major, too."

She doesn't consider her job a blow for women's lib, and admits it's the first one she's ever had. Being female does have its advantages in any job, she adds. "Like if the weather is bad, the boys will go out and meet the planes if they're here. But, of course, if they're not, then off I go. Somebody's got to be out there."

Basic signals

"There's still lots I don't know," she comments, but she has mastered basic aviation signals and executes these with a ballet of precision that has an added extra -- a welcoming smile.

Virginia parks only small aircraft, not the larger Ozark or Air Illinois planes. "And I stand far enough away so I won't get run over," she laughs. "The job itself isn't scary -- it's just the pilots who don't follow directions who scare me."

Gradually picking up airport slang -- "It's a survival tactic; I wouldn't know what anyone was talking about if I didn't." Virginia often flies with friends, "But it’s doubtful I could ever be a pilot. I'm afraid of stalls (the art of bringing an aircraft out of a dive). I just don’t like to feel like I’m falling from the sky.”

What do her friends think abut her new-found career? “Well, they think I’m nuts anyway, so I guess I’m right in character,” she twinkles, spotting an approaching aircraft, donning her helmet and bouncing out into the wild blue yonder.

Virginia Fowlkes is a "ground hostess" at Cape Central Airways here, but her duties keep her flying most of the time. In photograph at top, she bounds outside to the taxiway to meet an incoming plane. Above, she uses aviation signals to tell the pilot where to park his aircraft. (Gordon McBride ~ Southeast Missourian archive)