Margaret Ray Ringenberg RIP

Kyt · Jul 29, 2008

Now this was one helluva lady

WW2 aviator Ringenberg dies at 87 | The Journal Gazette

Aviation pioneer and beloved local legend Margaret Ray Ringenberg, 87, died in her sleep Monday in Oshkosh, Wis.

Known around the country for her flying skills and love of aircraft, having spent nearly five years of her life in the air as a pilot, Ringenberg was in Oshkosh for an air show to give a presentation as a former member of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs, officials said.

And as late as last month, Ringenberg competed in the 2,312-mile women-only Air Race Classic, flying from Bozeman, Mont., to Mansfield, Mass., and finishing third, along with co-pilot Carolyn Van Newkirk, according to race results.

Ringenberg joined the WASPs in 1943 as a ferry pilot, flying everything from B-52s to PT-19s. After the WASPs disbanded, she became a flight instructor in 1945 and began racing in 1957.

Ringenberg announced the war's end in 1945 to Fort Wayne residents by dropping 56,000 leaflets proclaiming "Japan Surrenders!" from a plane over downtown streets. Both newspapers in the city were on strike, so a radio station hired her to make the historic "news drop."

According to her biography, Ringenberg took her first flight, from a farmer's field, at the age of 7. In 1998, Tom Brokaw spent an entire chapter of his best-selling book "The Greatest Generation" on Ringenberg. She gave him a flying lesson when he interviewed her.

She told him she never intended to be a pilot.

"I started out flying because I wanted to be a stewardess - you call them flight attendants nowadays - and I thought 'what if the pilot gets sick or needs help?' I don't know the first thing about airplanes and that's where I found my challenge," Ringenberg told Brokaw. "I found it was wonderful."

On Monday, Brokaw said he was "heartbroken" to hear of her death.

"Margaret was one of my favorites," he said in a telephone interview.

Her story was so emblematic of women in particular, doing what she did well before feminism took hold, Brokaw said. And then, as so many WWII veterans, Ringenberg went back home from the war and resumed her life.

"It touched so many people," Brokaw said of Ringenberg's story. "To do what she did, a farm girl ... and then to have the life that she had."

He remembered her as someone who was completely self-effacing, with an adventurous life that went on well after the war.

Brokaw was just one of many to fly with her. Former Journal Gazette reporter Nancy Vendrely spent time with her in the air, serving as her "co-pilot" during a race in 1976.

"All I did was hold the map," Vendrely said. "It was fun to see her excellence as a pilot. She was always so calm and just sort of nonchalant about all the technical things that were involved."

Vendrely remembered Ringenberg as a humble woman, in spite of all her accomplishments and renown.

"She never talked as if she was somebody great," Vendrely said. "For her it was just something she absolutely loved to do as long as she was able."

Himself a WWII veteran, having served as a bombardier, Roger Myers first met Ringenberg in 1947. The two still worked closely together on the board of the Greater Fort Wayne Aviation Museum.

Myers said at least two rooms in Ringenberg's home were filled floor-to-ceiling with trophies and ribbons from her years as a racer.

Her passion for flying took her all over the world, speaking to astronauts in Houston or at the Air Force Memorial dedication in Washington. Ringenberg seemed to speak just about anywhere from church groups to Kiwanis luncheons. In 2001, school children followed her via the Internet as she raced from England to Australia.

In July 2002, she was honored as one of Indiana's six Living Legends. In 2004, Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher took Ringenberg, then 82, for a spin at about 150 mph around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Last summer, she was honored as a flying legend by the Gathering of the Eagles at the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Alabama.

She met her husband, Morris, while the two served during World War II. The Ringenbergs had a son, a daughter, five grandchildren and two great-grandsons. All the grandchildren won trophies with Ringenberg, flying in races with her.

Morris and Margeret Ringenberg were married for 56 years when he passed away in 2003. Both were active members of the Grabill Missionary Church. Her daughter, Marsha Wright, published a book about Ringenberg in 2007, "Maggie Ray, World War II Air Force Pilot."

Ringenberg wrote her own book in 1998 with Jane Roth titled, "Girls Can't Be Pilots."

After going to dinner Sunday night with friends, Ringenberg, a lifetime Allen County resident, returned to a Jesuit retreat center where she was staying. She died in her sleep, according to Shelley Donner, deputy coroner with the Winnebago County (Wis.) Coroner's Office.

Her death came as a surprise to those waiting to welcome her back to Oshkosh, said Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association.

"You always feel badly when you see another of that generation pass, because of just the history that they lived through ... These and the other women like her, it is always a loss to have someone like that who meant so much to aviation and women in aviation no longer with us," Knapinski said.

"She was passionate about flying and achieving the dreams you have. A woman who was able to serve in the WASP program had to be pretty determined to start with. It was not an easy road."

That sentiment is echoed by others who knew her.

"She was just down to earth and always full of enthusiasm," Vendrely said. "There was nothing she wasn't willing to try. She was just a small-town farm girl who had a dream, and she pursued it to the hilt."

Wright, Ringenberg's daughter, said her mother didn't talk much about being a WASP until the 50th anniversary of World War II. Then she started getting speaking engagements. Wright wrote all her speeches.

"She's incredibly full of energy. She pushed herself," Wright remembered.

The two had a close relationship. Ringenberg sang in choirs Wright directed, traveling around as a member of the Senior Saints.

Every Sunday the family got together for lunch, a tradition started by Ringenberg's father and continued through the generations.

"She never did like to cook, but she's willing to pick up the tab," Wright said, laughing.

When Ringenberg spoke to a group of NASA employees a few years ago, her granddaughter accompanying her, the astronauts offered her a shot at flying the space shuttle simulator -- realistic down to the G-forces and the mechanical arm.

As Ringenberg played around in the cockpit, one of the instructors remarked to her granddaughter that most pilots, trained on the simulator, still manage to crash the first few times.

Each time she tried, Ringenberg landed perfectly.
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Pathfinder · Aug 3, 2008

A remarkable lady.

RIP Margaret

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Margaret Ray Ringenberg RIP

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