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Roseville's ghost airport featured in new book (Part 1 of 2)
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Author Gail Elliott wrote a compelling book about a ghost airport.
National humorist and 20th century icon Will Rogers claimed that he'd never met a man he didn't like. That sentiment covered those on land and in the air.
Part of Roger's early life was trafficking with the early movers and shakers of aviation - including a long-forgotten airport that existed from 1919 until 1950. It prospered as Michigan's first commercial airfield where Roseville's Eastgate Shopping Center now stands.
In 1934, Rogers visited the 104 acres then known as Gratiot Airport, now bordered by Gratiot Avenue and Huron Park Elementary School, and Frazho and Marquette streets. He and renowned aviator Wiley Post, a fellow Oklahoman, landed where years later other celebrities like presidential candidate John Kennedy and I Love Lucy actress Vivan Vance touched city history.
Rogers and Post were there about one year prior to their world-circumnavigation tour, and subsequent deaths, in Barrow, Alaska.
Such historical tidbits connected to Michigan's aviation history are captured in the new book Roseville's Airport, written by 43-year Roseville resident Gail Elliott.
"I started the research in 2006, but it grew and grew," said Elliott, 70, and a retired medical technologist from Beaumont Hospital's Royal Oak Campus. "It started as just a report on the airport, but more and more information became available and led to the book. I finally had to stop writing so we could get it published."
Elliott's interest burgeoned during her membership in the Roseville Historical & Genealogical Society, where she's served as recording secretary for about eight of her 12 years with the group. The book was officially launched in September, 2008, in time for Roseville's 50th city anniversary festivities.
Because she is also married to a pilot, former United States Air Force Airman Second Class Harold "Bill" Elliott, her interests lie in all things airborne.
"After his Air Force years, Bill worked in air transport at Detroit's City Airport as well as in aircraft maintenance supervisor of maintenance for the gas supplier Coastal Corporation," she said.
The parents to three sons - James, Thomas and Robert - they spend countless hours searching air sites and records for historical gems, says Bill Elliott.
That interest has also brought them into contact with the survivors of Roseville pilots or airport personnel. Often, the Elliotts say, those family homes are shrines to flying or to the air accomplishments of their relatives.
One of those was Norbert Okoniewski, who was honored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just months before his death in 2005. The agency recognized his 62 years as a inspector-rated mechanic without any incidents, says Gail Elliott. Today, his survivors pay homage to his many successes through his widow's home decor.
The Elliotts' backyard neighbors, the Moldenhauers, farmed on property that adjoined the airport, and relayed stories over the years about the former airfield that the Elliott house was built on.
Named Packard Field in 1919, it was changed to Gratiot Airport in 1929, then re-named Hartung Airport after the air service company that managed it. Elliott titled her book Roseville's Airport for the common name it is known by, she says. What most people don't know, however, is the number of famous people associated with the airport, as well as the number of female pilots that frequented its airstrips.
Co-Manager Joyce Hartung established a special airport trophy for the women who flew, awarding it eight consecutive years, from 1936 to 1943. Annual recognition was given to the most prolific female flyer for abilities in the following categories: acrobatic, spot-landing, paper-strafing, balloon bursting with propellers, ribbon-cutting, and bomb drops using a sack of flour and a ground target.
"Some of them actually flew their planes in high heels, too," said Gail Elliott. "Marion 'Babe' Weyant Ruth of the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame was one of them."
Airplane tires feature snow chains on the Detroit Stinson.
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