By William “Skip” Deegans
Readers who remember Greenbrier County aviator Oscar Tate may not be surprised to know that he (second from the left) is shown in this 1940s photo shot near the Giza Pyramids in Egypt. Tate was there with a group of fellow pilots.
Tate was taught to fly in Huntington by Howard Mayes, a pioneer West Virginia aviator and former World War I pilot. In 1939, Tate and a partner started a flying service at the Greenbrier Airport located between Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs. At the same time, Tate was a commercial pilot for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and flew some 6,000 hours all over the world. His Greenbrier flying service was interrupted by World War II. Tate continued to fly for TWA and the Air Transport Command. In 1946, he flew the first commercial plane from Paris to New York after France was liberated.
After World War II, Tate renewed his flying service, leased the Greenbrier Airport, and starting a flight school. Two of his first students, Ardeene L. James of White Sulphur Springs and Mary Alice Perry of Lewisburg, were former members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). They wanted to become commercial pilots – an unusual career path for women then. Tate’s flying service, sometimes jokingly called Tate’s West Virginia Airlines (TWA), catered to guests of The Greenbrier, and it flew countless numbers of them to regional airports and other destinations. Charles O. “Oscar” Tate died in 1994.
Photo courtesy of Ann Tate Bell.
Sources: Beckley Post-Herald, Raleigh Register, Huntington Herald-Dispatch.