Martie Bowman, Date Unknown

Martie Bowman landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield twice. The first time in an Inland Sport, registry NC252N; the second time in a Waco A, registry NC12449. On neither visit did she write a date or time, but, from the nearby entries of her fellow pilots, she was there on August 24, 1931 the first time. She was inbound from Phoenix headed for Cleveland. The second visit was either April 21 or April 28th 1932 (westbound from El Paso). On this day, she was part of a flight of two with her husband, Les Bowman, flying another other Waco.

She kept fast company. On her visit in 1931, signed-in to the register (link to page) next to her were Phoebe Omlie (also headed to Cleveland), Gladys O’Donnell, Jean LaRene and Ruth Stewart (all headed to Douglas, AZ). Listed just below them, on the same day, was Z.D. (Zantford) Granville. He was flying GeeBee NC46V.

Ms. Bowman was a competitive air racer, as this earlier quote from the August 25, 1930 New York Times indicates:

“Mrs. Bowman Ahead at Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 24 (AP) –
Mrs. Martie Bowman of Hempstead,
L.I., the first of the contestants in
The Women’s Dixie Air Derby to
reach Memphis, landed at the
Municipal Airport at 4:29:21
o’clock this afternoon.
Mrs. Phoebe Omlie of Memphis
came in about three minutes later.
Miss Omlie still leads Mrs. Bowman
in elapsed time from Washington by
nearly two hours.”

A remarkable finding is that both of the airplanes flown by Ms. Bowman are currently registered with the FAA (as of January, 2001). The Waco is a UBA model, S/N 3600. It was last registered on 5/20/1999, and is owned by an individual in Zanesville, OH. The Inland is a model W500, S/N W-512. It was manufactured in 1929. It presently has a Warner Scarab series engine of 125 HP installed. An individual in Simpsonville, KY owns it.

Born March 22, 1901, Marguerite E. "Martie" Bowman passed away on Friday, October 4, 1985.

Dossier 2.4.14

UPLOADED: 05/05 REVISED: 03/10/06, 09/30/07, 10/08/07