It does not take a lot of searching to find a famous Oklahoman in the press. Many of these famous Oklahomans were in Indian Territory before statehood. Even though one famous Oklahoman was not born on this soil, it seemed he got here as soon as he could.
Texas born Wiley Hardeman Post, aka. Wiley Post, had about as many press pop ups as any other famous Oklahoman but Post is found all over the world in the news ashispredominantandgame changing contribution to the field of flight and airplanes is matched by no other. His exemplary history paints an amazing picture.
Post was born November 22, 1898, in VanZandt County,Texas.Post’sparents moved from Texas to Oklahoma when he was about five years old and after moving around about a few small towns his family settled permanently on a farm near Maysville, Okla. in 1920.
Post seemed to have a desire to become one of the great aviation pioneers at an early age. After he completed the seventh grade, he saw his first airplane at a county fair in Lawton Okla. and rode in an automobile for the first time on the trip home.
PostsoonwenttoSweeney Automobile and Aviation School in Kansas City, Kans. where he earned the status of chauffeur and mechanic. Following his ambition for flight, Post attended U.S. Army’s radio school training camp at the University of Oklahoma in hopes of getting a little closer to his dream of flying a plane and hopefully becoming a pilot in the U.S. Army Air force. During WW1, Post went to France but Germany agreed to armistice a little too soon for that opportunity.
When Post was a young adult, a common career path led to oil field roughneck work. The unsteadiness of the oil field came with some hard-lived education while trying to supplement the sporadic pay.
Post began earning extra money by working with Burrell Tibbs Flying Circus where Okhistory.org states he started as a parachute jumper then learned to fly. The circus must not have been enough extra income as Post soon chose another supplement. A bandit career literally was his choice.
The Chickasha Star newspaper read “Bandit Captured and lodged in Jail”. Post’s sentence was 10 years and the crime was armed robbery according to okhistory.org. He was paroled in 1922.
Post soon got back on his flight path after an oilfield accident took one of his eyes and a large cash settlement opened a new door. This is how he came to don his nowfamous eye patch.
Post bought his first airplane, a JN-4 Canuck, with the settlement money and worked diligently for his pilot license in spite of having only one eye.
Post finally landed some steady work as a pilot for oil man Florence C. Hall who purchased an aircraft from Lockheed Vega which he named Winnie Mae after his daughter. In 1930, Hall purchased another Vega also named Winnie Mae.
Post flew this airplane around the world from New York City to New York city in a little over eight days. Post made some prominent engineering improvements to the aircraft to complete this flight.
After this trip, Post and his eye patch became world famous and soon broke his own record after designing a high-altitude pressure suit. This was not the end of Post’s aircraft modifications as he went on to design and construct a float plane from a Lockheed Orion.
The float plane became his most famous achievement and unfortunately his final one. Post was eager to test his new design and who would make a better choice for the testing than his good friend and fellow Oklahoman Will Rogers. Rogers also quite famous as an “Oklahoma Son” and sharing the same Cherokee heritage as Post seemed to be a perfect friendship.
The two set out for a trip from Alaska to Siberia. The plane took off just fine August 15, 1935, but could not make it through heavy fog. The pair crashed the plane crashing into a lagoon after shearing a wing off.
The two Famous Oklahoma friends’ remains were taken back to Oklahoma for burial.
Though Post’s physical influence on the world came to an abrupt end, his lifelong story, adventures and influence on aviation dotted the press all over the world. Headlines described the final flight in iconic phrases that will never be forgotten.
Some of the headlines included: “The Life of Wiley Post”, “American Aviator Wiley Post” and of course the most conclusive from the two Oklahoman’s on the front page of the “The Daily Oklahoman”August19,1935 reading, “POST-ROGERS AIRCRASHINPICTURES”.