Born: 30 June 1919, United States
Died: 9 December 1944
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from HistoryLink.org, in line with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Thirty-eight pilots in the WASP program were killed in training or on mission flights. Since the women pilots were not actually in the military, they had no benefits, not even burial coverage. For a number of those killed, fellow pilots contributed to ship the body home for burial. Often another pilot would accompany the body to the deceased pilot’s hometown. The deaths included five Washington women.
Mary Louise Webster (1919-1944) was a passenger on a December 9, 1944, flight from Frederick, Oklahoma, to Tulsa when the plane iced up and crashed near Tulsa. The crash killed Webster and two others. Webster was born in Ellensburg and attended Holy Names Academy in Seattle and Seattle Business College. She had worked as a secretary in Ellensburg and had flight training there and in Yakima. Webster earned her Women Airforce Service Pilot wings on October 16, 1944. She is the only woman whose name is listed on the War Memorial at the Kittitas County Courthouse.