The Roanoker - May/June 2021 - 10
strange days of Roanoke
Twelve Seconds of Horror
D
uring the Depression,
local aviators resorted to
creative means to fund
their activities. Flying was
expensive. Flying lessons
cost $12 an hour, and bankers refused to
provide loans to purchase planes. Insurance
agents considered flying too risky to
write any life insurance policies on the
pilots. The financial risk of damaging and
then having to repair one's plane or of
suffering personal injury or even death was
completely on the shoulders of those who
chose to go airborne.
Clayton Lemon and Frank Reynolds
knew well the risks and costs of what many
considered an expensive and dangerous
hobby. So precarious were the financials of
flying, the sheriff once confiscated one of
Lemon's airplanes to pay off unpaid hangar
rent. To weather the Depression, Lemon
and Reynolds would fly to some cow
pasture on the weekend and have " Penny
A Pound Day. " Anyone wanting a ride in
the craft would be charged on the basis of
their weight - literally one penny for every
pound. Passengers were weighed on a big
scale and charged accordingly.
A regular at these events was then
Congressman Clifton Woodrum, whose
interest in flying was well-known. His
occasional presence at the weekend events
added to the show.
In addition to selling rides, Lemon and
Reynolds often enhanced their air shows
by partnering with parachutists. Crowds
would look skyward as a jumper would
climb out of the open-air cockpit, grip the
frame of the wing, steady himself erect
and then leap into the air. A hat would be
passed in the crowd beforehand as earnings
for the parachutist's daredevil act.
Raymond Ross, 25, of Roanoke was
known to Lemon and Reynolds as one of
the few locals that regularly jumped. On a
weekend in February of 1930 word spread
that Ross would be making a leap that
Sunday afternoon at Cook Field which
was located adjacent to Route 11 midway
between Salem and Roanoke. " Parachute
Jumper to Make 5,000-Foot Drop " read a
small headline in the Roanoke Times. Ross
had made about a dozen such leaps and his
signature act was to free-fall halfway before
opening his chute.
By mid-afternoon on February 9th, an
estimated 3,000 people had congregated
at Cook Field to watch Ross tempt death.
Ross casually moved about the crowd as
his friends passed the hat. Ross told some
Lemon at Cook Field in 1929
with his plane, the one from
which Ross jumped.
10 MAY/JUNE 2021
TheRoanoker.com
COURTESY OF THE VIRGINIA ROOM
written by Nelson Harris In 1930, thousands cheered...gasped...and then fell silent at what they witnessed.
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker - May/June 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - May/June 2021
The Roanoker - May/June 2021 - Cover1
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The Roanoker - May/June 2021 - Cover3
The Roanoker - May/June 2021 - Cover4
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