world war 2 – Page 2 – Texas History Notebook

Marion Stegeman Hodgson, Winning Her Wings

Marian Stegeman Hodgson was born December 16, 1921 in Athens, Georgia. She earned her degree in journalism from the University of Georgia in the spring of 1941, not quite six months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Around that time the federal government had instituted a flight training program called the Civilian Pilot Training Program, or CPT, and during her senior year, she was selected to participate. Part of the planning was to admit one female for every ten male trainees.

Oveta Culp Hobby

The name Oveta Culp Hobby is probably somewhat familiar to Texans, whether or not they may know who she actually was. She was born Oveta Hoover Culp on January 19, 1905 in Killeen, Bell County, Texas to Isaac William Culp (1870-1934) and the former Emma Elizabeth Hoover (1881-1959). Isaac was born in Coryell County to John Robinson Culp and the former Mary A. Dole. John Robinson Culp’s parents were Josiah C. Culp, Jr. (1819-1879) and Rachel Eaton. Less is probably known about Josiah than his son John Robinson Culp or grandson Isaac William Culp, but Josiah is believed to have come to Texas from the southeast prior to the Civil War and served for some period in the Confederate Army, possibly the entire time in the Frontier Brigade, in Texas having enlisted in Gatesville.

Avenger Field

Avenger Field was active during World War II to train female pilots in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP). One of the goals of the WASP program was to make use of the talents of female fliers in service in order to free up their male counterparts for combat flying.

Gordon McLendon

Gordon Barton McLendon was born June 8, 1921 in Paris, Texas to Barton Robert and Jeanette Marie Eyster McLendon. A week after Gordon was born, there was a birth announcement in an Oklahoma newspaper about Gordon, stating that his father was visiting his newborn son and wife from Idabel, Oklahoma where he was working. We also know that Gordon’s grandfather, Jefferson Davis McLendon was a lawyer and judge living there in Idabel at the time. A few months later, there was another short article in the local Idabel newspaper saying that Gordon was with his mother in California and that his father was visiting them while Gordon had been taken ill. By 1930 when the federal census was taken, Barton was practicing law and the family was residing together in Idabel, Oklahoma.

Dr. Dwight Meyer Deter

An Associated Press news article was published May 30, 1943 in the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal stating that the wife of Dr. Dwight M. Deter of Austin, Texas had been notified by the War department that Lt. Col. Deter was a prisoner of the Japanese. Dr. and Mrs. Deter had been stationed at Corregidor and Lt. Col. Deter was later attached to Headquarters, Visayan-Mindanao Guerrilla Force, where Lt. Col. Deter served as a surgeon for the United States Army. Mrs. Deter had returned to the United States in May, 1941 and had last heard from her husband on April 6, 1942.