Help Research Kate Lee's Story
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The Women’s Air Service Pilots were the first American women to fly military aircraft in World War Two as part of an audacious experiment by celebrated aviatrix, Jacqueline Cochran. Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier in 1953, but in 1941, she was an ambitious and extremely well connected pilot who succeeded in convincing General Hap Arnold that women pilots could be trained to ferry aircraft in the United States, so desperately needed male ferry pilots could be released for combat duty overseas.
From 1942 to 1944, over 25,000 women applied to the program, 1800 were accepted and less than 1100 won their wings. The women were subject to the same training as male pilots, washed out at about the same rate as male pilots, and upon graduation, were assigned duties their male counterparts refused, such as towing targets for live artillery practise, testing repaired or damaged aircraft, and teaching male pilots how to fly the B26 Marauder.
Despite the overwhelming success of the program, the WASP were unceremoniously disbanded in December 1944 to make room for male civilian pilots hoping to avoid the draft.
Last summer, I found several hundred letters written by a WASP named Kate Lee Harris on ebay. Kate Lee was the oldest of three children born to Arthur Miller Harris and his wife in Durham, North Carolina. After graduating from Duke University in 1941, she was recruited by Jacqueline Cochran in 1943 because she held a private pilot’s license.
Written over a three year period of time, Kate’s letters provide a fascinating glimpse inside the WASP program, but more significantly, they reveal the beginning, middle and end of a relationship impacted by the war and a secret that cost the man she wrote the letters to, the only woman he ever loved.
Douglas Elzea was the son of a self-made millionaire from Minnestoa who sold eggs and butter in New York in the late nineteen hundreds. William Wood Elzea died when Douglas was three years old, leaving his mother, Mary, to raise Douglas and his sister, Muriel, by herself. Douglas grew up among wealth and privilege, and had been on just three dates with Kate Lee when they started writing one another.
Kate Lee intended to marry Douglas, but because he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands, site of the only battle during World War two ever fought on American soil, the two wouldn’t see each other again for nearly three years.
This past September, I signed up for a Great Smokies Writing Program entitled “Getting’ Her Done” helmed by writer, Heather Newton. On the first day of class, we were asked to introduce ourselves and our proposed stories.
I was fourth or fifth from the end, so when it was my turn to talk, I started with the opening salvo “I have been obsessed with the Women’s Air Service Pilots for 25 years”. Fifteen people said, “What?” but one girl sitting across from me said, “My great aunt was a WASP”. At the break, I sat down beside her and said, “What was your great aunt’s name?”
“Kate Lee Harris” she said, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The statistical probability of finding that girl, on that night, in that class, was enough to make me believe this story will be told, one way or the other.
My plan is to spend a week with Kate Lee's daughter, Nancy, in California going through her mother's things in January, then spend a week in Denton, Texas at the Texas Women's University where the WASP archives are stored, then the WASP homecoming reunion in Sweetwater, Texas on May 24, 2015. Less than a handful of Women's Air Service Pilots are still alive to tell their stories, and time is running out to meet them.
Thank you all in advance for your encouragement and support of this remarkable project.
From 1942 to 1944, over 25,000 women applied to the program, 1800 were accepted and less than 1100 won their wings. The women were subject to the same training as male pilots, washed out at about the same rate as male pilots, and upon graduation, were assigned duties their male counterparts refused, such as towing targets for live artillery practise, testing repaired or damaged aircraft, and teaching male pilots how to fly the B26 Marauder.
Despite the overwhelming success of the program, the WASP were unceremoniously disbanded in December 1944 to make room for male civilian pilots hoping to avoid the draft.
Last summer, I found several hundred letters written by a WASP named Kate Lee Harris on ebay. Kate Lee was the oldest of three children born to Arthur Miller Harris and his wife in Durham, North Carolina. After graduating from Duke University in 1941, she was recruited by Jacqueline Cochran in 1943 because she held a private pilot’s license.
Written over a three year period of time, Kate’s letters provide a fascinating glimpse inside the WASP program, but more significantly, they reveal the beginning, middle and end of a relationship impacted by the war and a secret that cost the man she wrote the letters to, the only woman he ever loved.
Douglas Elzea was the son of a self-made millionaire from Minnestoa who sold eggs and butter in New York in the late nineteen hundreds. William Wood Elzea died when Douglas was three years old, leaving his mother, Mary, to raise Douglas and his sister, Muriel, by herself. Douglas grew up among wealth and privilege, and had been on just three dates with Kate Lee when they started writing one another.
Kate Lee intended to marry Douglas, but because he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands, site of the only battle during World War two ever fought on American soil, the two wouldn’t see each other again for nearly three years.
This past September, I signed up for a Great Smokies Writing Program entitled “Getting’ Her Done” helmed by writer, Heather Newton. On the first day of class, we were asked to introduce ourselves and our proposed stories.
I was fourth or fifth from the end, so when it was my turn to talk, I started with the opening salvo “I have been obsessed with the Women’s Air Service Pilots for 25 years”. Fifteen people said, “What?” but one girl sitting across from me said, “My great aunt was a WASP”. At the break, I sat down beside her and said, “What was your great aunt’s name?”
“Kate Lee Harris” she said, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The statistical probability of finding that girl, on that night, in that class, was enough to make me believe this story will be told, one way or the other.
My plan is to spend a week with Kate Lee's daughter, Nancy, in California going through her mother's things in January, then spend a week in Denton, Texas at the Texas Women's University where the WASP archives are stored, then the WASP homecoming reunion in Sweetwater, Texas on May 24, 2015. Less than a handful of Women's Air Service Pilots are still alive to tell their stories, and time is running out to meet them.
Thank you all in advance for your encouragement and support of this remarkable project.
Organizer
Denise Meyers
Organizer
Mars Hill, NC
