Marjorie Sanford Thompson ( 1915-2008) of Peoria, Illinois, served as a pilot in the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) from 1943 to 1944.
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1434
4 June 1994 oral history transcript interview at the Texas Woman's University Library; photograph of WASP Marjorie Sanford Thompson posing in the passenger seat of a car with a puppy, circa 1944.
Marjorie Sanford Thompson (1915-2008) of Peoria, Illinois, served as a pilot in the WASPs during WWII. Marjorie Sanford Thompson was born in Peoria, Illinois, on 18 February 1915. She attended Peoria High School and graduated from Bradley University in 1937. Thompson learned to fly through the Civilian Pilot Training Program while teaching biology and aeronautics at Woodruff High School in Peoria. Thompson joined the WASPs in 1943. She was stationed at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, for basic and advanced flight training. She was transferred briefly to Love Field in Dallas before being sent to Dodge City, Kansas, where she was part of the first group of women to be trained and rated for B-26 bombers. In January 1944, Thompson was sent to Harlingen, Texas, where she towed aerial targets for gunners. During her time there she met and married her husband in August 1944. Thompson was discharged when the WASPs disbanded in December 1944. Following her discharge, she took a job analyzing aircraft accidents in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She and her husband moved to Houston in 1950 where she remained active in the Junior League and other volunteer activities. Thompson died in May 2008.
Women's History Military
Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
World War II era (1940-1946)
World War, 1939-1945 Women Airforce Service Pilots (U.S.)
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
