Meredith Campbell Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Only a part of this collection has been digitized.
What's in the full collection?: The collection includes 2007 oral history and photocopies of photographs.
Full biography: Meredith "Teddy" Rolfe Campbell (1917-2013) of Montana served in the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in 1943. Meredith Rolfe Campbell was born in 1917 and raised in several Montana locations. She attended Montana State Teachers College. After receiving her degree, Campbell taught in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. She later moved to Helena, Montana, because the town had an airport. There she taught English and business while earning her pilot's license. She later returned to teaching in White Sulphur Springs. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she moved to Long Beach, California. Shortly thereafter she relocated to an air field in Tucson, Arizona, probably Davis-Monthan Army Air Field, to work in air traffic control. When Campbell learned about the WASP program, she went to Sweetwater, Texas, to meet with Jacqueline Cochran. She was sent to work at Flying Training Command headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, until she could get the dental work required to pass the WASP physical. In March 1943, she joined WASP class 43-W-5 at Avenger Field. The following month she was injured in a flight accident, hospitalized for a week, and upon recovery was moved to the 43-W-6 class. However, during advanced training an instructor decided she was not strong enough to fly and she was discharged from the WASP. Campbell moved to New York City and worked for the Jordanoff Aviation Corporation as an editor and for "Time" magazine writing photograph captions. While living in New York, she had two children. In 1951, after her divorce from her first husband, a member of the Canadian Royal Air Force, she moved to the West Coast and worked for Columbia Steel in Longview, Oregon. There she met her second husband and the family moved to San Diego, California. Campbell taught school in the city until her husband's death in 1986. She died on 19 February, 2013.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
Women Airforce Service Pilots (U.S.)
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Meredith Rolfe Campbell; Primarily documents Meredith Rolfe Campbell's service in the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in 1943 and her experiences in New York immediately following. Campbell briefly discusses her childhood in rural Montana, including her father's jobs, the first time she saw a plane, and her early desire to fly. She summarizes her experiences as a teacher in White Sulphur Springs and efforts to earn her pilot's license. Campbell describes working at an airport in Tucson, Arizona, (probably Davis-Monthan), learning about the WASP program, and her supervisor signing off on hours she hadn't flown so she could be eligible to join. She discusses meeting Jacqueline Cochran, being turned down because of a dental problem, and working at Flying Training Command headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, until she could get it fixed. Notable subjects from her time at Fort Worth include General Barton Yount, gender discrimination, pranks, and meeting baseball player "Red" Rolfe and actor Bill Holden. " Topics from her training at Avenger Field include: the Fifinella logo; uniforms; flying the B-26; fellow WASP; Yankee Doodle Pilot; typical training tests; ground school; social activities; her flight accident; parachuting out; Assen Jordanoff's Flying and How to Do It!; her injuries and treatment; being moved back to another class; and getting washed out. " Campbell also discusses her activities following her service. Topics include: moving to New York City; working for the Jordanoff Aviation Corporation; writing captions for Time magazine; being offered a part in Dark Victory; and the overcrowding of New York City once the war ended. She also shares her reasons for leaving the city and moving to Longview, Oregon; moving to San Diego, California, with her second husband; starting a WASP exhibit at the San Diego Aerospace Museum; and a fallout with her fellow WASP because of it. Other topics include: Amelia Earhart; WASP reunions and publications; what she loves about flying; and religion.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Meredith Campbell Collection

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