Marjorie "Margie" Doris Edwards was born in Anaheim, California,
September 30, 1918, the first child of Frederick (Fred) and Marie Edwards. Her
father was a farmer, who came to this country from England. At first he raised
walnuts and chickens, but soon converted the property to an orange orchard.
That property is now part of Disneyland.
Marjorie was very musical, and took piano lessons, and learned to play very
well. The organist at the Methodist Church she attended gave her some
instruction on the pipe organ, and she played the organ for church for the
first time at age 12.
Marjorie had a sister, Bessie Marie, who was two years her junior, and a
brother, Fred Jr., who was 14 years younger than she.
Marjorie had the natural skills and temperament of a teacher, and upon
graduation from Anaheim Union High School in 1936, enrolled in Santa Barbara
State Teachers College, which years later became University of California at
Santa Barbara. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940, the first
of her family to attend or graduate from college. It was in college that she
had her first experience of flying. Her boyfriend had a plane and was a
licensed pilot, and much to the displeasure of her parents she went flying
with him several times and loved it.
World War II had already started in Europe, and letters from England told
how the war was affecting the family there. Her cousins were already in the
British Army and the Royal Air Force. So there was already great family
concern about the war, especially with Germany.
Marjorie, however, became a teacher in a Junior High School in Baldwin
Park, California, a ways to the east of Los Angeles. She enjoyed teaching and
enjoyed the students. Later on she taught at John C. Freemont Junior High
School in her home town of Anaheim. While she liked teaching, she wanted to do
something to aid the war effort, as Pearl Harbor had plunged the U. S. into
the fray. During a summer or two she went to Phoenix, Arizona and learned to
fly, and earned her pilot's license, whereupon she announced to her family
that she intended to join the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
organization. The summer prior to that she worked in the Douglas Aircraft
Factory in Long Beach, California, and when she was accepted as a WASP
candidate, she left for Avenger Field, Texas, and was in class 44-W6.
She sent glowing letters of the experience and of flying. She especially
liked flying at night in the starlit Texas sky, and seeing the lights below.
She said it was "like flying between two heavens, only you needed to land
on the right one." She wrote of the heat and the blowing sand, and the
sun that tanned the skin even through a blouse. She sent home words of WASP
songs that were sung, and was amused that the local paper headlines announced
"Texans and Americans" invade France. Her very special friend was
Eleanor "Irish" Fairchild, 44-W6. Marjorie proved to be a very able
pilot, and looked forward to ferrying planes for the war effort. That was not
to be, however.
On a cross-country flight, on June 13, 1944, her engine failed, and due to
recent heavy rains there was nowhere to land, so she opened the canopy and
"hit the silk." She was apparently hit by the tailplane and was
killed before she hit the ground. She landed very near her plane, and was
found by a farmer and his young son, about the same age as was Marjorie's
young brother, then 12. Eleanor "Irish" Fairchild accompanied her
body home, and remains to this day a family friend.
A service flag hung in the church of which she had been a member in
Anaheim, and of all the stars on it hers became the only gold one, signifying
she had died in the service of her country. A service flag (Red border around
a white field with a blue star) hung in the Edwards family's window signifying
a person in the service of the nation. Upon her death the star was changed to
gold, even though the organization "Gold Star Mothers" said she
wasn't in a recognized service organization.
About 1996, Marjorie's brother, now a retired Methodist minister, writer
and artist, was contacted by Walter Johnson of Amarillo, Texas, the man who,
as a 12 year old boy, was the one who ran out in that Texas field the day
Marjorie crashed, and found her and her plane. The two men have kept up a
lively e-mail correspondence since then. Some months ago the man in Texas sent
Marjorie's brother some small fragments of her airplane, which proved to be a
difficult envelope to receive, and evoked thoughts of one who will in memory
be a beautiful 26 year old young woman. The Johnson family in Texas, that
still owns that land, recently (1999) affixed a stainless steel memorial
marker at the place where she crashed.
Marjorie's mother, Marie Edwards, now 104 years of age, still lives in
Anaheim, as does her sister, Bessie Marie Hopkins. Her brother Fred lives in
Redlands, CA.
Fred Edwards, Jr. Marjorie's brother.July 1999