June 4, 2019 Azellia White

The Liberty Gazette

June 4, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

You may know of the American Cowboy Museum in South Houston. It’s on Almeda Road near Airport Boulevard, on the Taylor-Stevenson Ranch. You may know of a drill bit that can drill through rock, invented by Hughes Tool Company. That invention came out of the drilling at what was known as Pierce Junction field, on the ranch near where that museum is. You may know of the owners of that ranch, of the daring love story of Edward Taylor and Ann George, that she was purchased by Edward’s parents as a slave to take care of him, but the two fell in love, lived openly as husband and wife, bought 640 acres and raised six children on it. There is so much more to their story, which hopefully you know. But if you don’t, please learn it. Their ranch is a place rich in pioneering history.

There’s another part to the story of the Taylor-Stevenson Ranch that fits well within this space. That is, of course, an airport, Sky Ranch, built by some of the best pilots ever.

The Tuskegee Airmen were military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Force. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.

At the end of World War II, three Tuskegee Airmen relocated to Houston to start a flight training program and offer charter flights and cargo services. They set out to make it possible for young black G.I.’s and civilians to learn about aviation. Ben Stevenson, Elton “Ray” Thomas, and Hulon “Pappy” White were those Airmen.

Pappy White had worked as a mechanic while in Tuskegee, and when he and his bride moved to Houston, they continued to make history.

Born in 1913 in Gonzales, Texas, Azellia White is now 105. But there she was in Tuskegee, Alabama, 32 years old, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit the famous pilots during
World War II. When Mrs. Roosevelt insisted on taking a ride with one of them, Mrs. White was inspired to learn to fly.

She began training in a Taylorcraft with a set of flight instructors anybody would want to have, yet not just anyone would have access to. Thanks to excellent training by the Tuskegee Airmen, she became the first black female from Texas to earn a pilot certificate. That was March 26, 1946, when it was safer for blacks to fly from town to town than to drive.

She continued her flying here in Texas, but Sky Ranch was only in business for two years, closing its doors when the G.I. bill was modified with restrictions that affected the business of flight training.

But Mrs. Azellia White continues to inspire young aviators. The Aviation Science Lab at Houston’s
Sterling High School is named in her honor, and last April, she was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

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