Birds of a Feather

The old joke was that they would fly around the world with J.T. Seesing in a plane, but going around the block in the backseat of his car was a different story.

All it took was an airplane on the horizon and J.T. -- or Dad or Grandpa, depending -- would be craning his neck around this way and that, tracing its path across the sky.

"It was my dad's world. His life," explained J.T.'s son, Mark Seesing.

"He lived and breathed aviation," J.T.'s granddaughter Hannah agreed.

Seesing and his love of flying were instrumental in founding the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, and his legacy is perhaps more apparent in the continuing work of his similarly sky-gazing family.

Aviation memorabilia of the Seesing family. (Laura Simon)

Mark, his wife, Elizabeth, and their daughter, Hannah, all talk of airplanes -- and of J.T. Seesing -- with a kindred enthusiasm, sitting around the table in their Cape Girardeau home. The house itself happens to be the same one that J.T. Seesing and his wife Joyce, moved into when they moved off the airport grounds in 1956.

"Mom got tired of people knocking on the windows at 3 in the morning asking for gas," Mark explained.

They moved away from the airport itself, but five of their six children would still learn to fly. Only two are still active pilots, but it's always been more than just the family business, said Mark. It's in their blood.

Seesing grew up during the Great Depression, and knowing he'd likely be drafted to fight in World War II, enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

"He made the physical by one pound for being 5' 9"," Mark teased. "But he would rather have been in the air than on the ground."

Mark and Elizabeth Seesing with their daughter Hannah , inside their Cape Girardeau home. (Laura Simon)

At 16, Mark began learning to fly, realizing that he, too, would rather have been in the air than on the ground.

"I've been in an airport most of my life," he said. "I've done everything from washing dishes in the airport restaurant to being airport manager."

And though his daughter, Hannah, has logged a few hours of flight time, she's drawn more to the management aspects of an airport.

"She's been working airshows with her dad since she was old enough to get herself dressed at 5 o'clock," Elizabeth explained.

Her parents aren't surprised that she's found a way to be involved in aviation. Once, while Mark and a pregnant Elizabeth attended an airshow in Florida, the Blue Angels thundered over the crowd from behind.

Hannah Seesing stands in front of an old aeronautical map, surrounded by some of her Golden Knights memorabilia. (Laura Simon)

"Mark is standing there with his hand on my belly, and [Hannah] flipped," she said. "Before she was born, she was destined to be an airshow baby. That's where she got hooked."

Weeks later, Hannah was born on Father's Day. Since then, she's worked with the Canadian military's premier air demonstration squadron, the Snow Birds, the Army Golden Knights Parachuting team and others. When the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport was recognized by the International Council of Air Shows in Las Vegas for having had the best support staff, she had been in charge of it.

This spring, she graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a degree in aviation management. The Seesings like to tell the story of her first campus visit, when one of the admissions workers stopped her after seeing her name.

"'Seesing? As in John Seesing? I know your Grandpa,' he told me," Hannah explained. The man had oddly left it at that, but they later heard him talking about "the father of general aviation in the state of Missouri," which pieced it together.

During her time in Warrensburg, Missouri, a gigantic B2 bomber often flew in and out of the airfield, much to the locals' general annoyance. But Hannah would always stop what she was doing for a second and crane her neck to watch it take off.

Hannah Seesing holds an old photo of her family from her dad, Mark's, first solo flight. Seesing's parents, Mark and Elizabeth, stand next to their daughter. (Laura Simon)

"The townies would be like, 'Oh, this again,'" she said.

"But I'd be like, 'Guys! You're missing it!'"

tgraef@semissourian.com

388-3627