Part 2

Where Sky Harbor International Airport is now located was at that time a dirt landing strip a half mile long. I first soloed in a small airplane flying from that little field, experiencing great satisfaction in that accomplishment together with a growing love for the fledgling flying business. All this gave rise to second thoughts about marriage. I'd been spending what extra money I had on aircraft rentals, and knew this would have to be put in the background if I asked Mary to marry me.

Those flying from Phoenix's small landing strip, some of whom I became well acquainted with, were exciting and adventuresome characters in my view. One of these, Jimmy Angel, showed up at the Phoenix airfield in a huge old Fokker freight plane. Soon thereafter he began outfitting it to haul coffee from jungle plantations in South America to shipping centers on the west coast.

It didn't take long until I was spending all my spare time with Jimmy helping him with the work on his plane. We became friends and he asked me to go along with him as he filled his coffee hauling contracts, promising good wages and all the flight time I'd ever need for whatever license I might want to secure.

This was an exciting and heady consideration, and I needed to talk to someone about it. Mary was the only one I cared for enough to stay in town if she would consent to marry me. When we were alone one evening I spoke to her about Jimmy's offer saying, "I want to go with him - unless you'll marry me!"

I knew all along that I was going to ask her to marry me, but I wasn't really sure how the question should be asked until suddenly the whole sentence had been voiced. I was surprised and more than a little nervous about the way it happened, but to my great relief Mary smiled, put her arms around my neck saying "Yes," she would love to be my wife.

Mary's parents lived in Holbrook, so we first went to tell my parents and her brother Bill. Father's comment on hearing the news was, "And all this time we thought he had the flu!"

I have few clear memories of the short but hectic time we waited to be married. The guys at the airfield were happy for me and showed it by saying, "There goes another good man lost to the cause!"

Soon after that Jimmy Angel flew off to South America. The next I heard of him was when a picture of what the world would come to know as "Angel Falls" was published in the local paper. Jimmy took this famous photograph from his airplane, providing us our first ever glimpse of the world's highest waterfall, dwarfing all others.