St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 156

E6 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH EVERYDAY SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002 I REMEMBER SLIM A Lindbergh Timeline 1902 Lindbergh's flight took him to of Feb. 4: Charles Augustus Lindbergh is bom in Detroit to Charles August Lindbergh, a lawyer, and Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh, a teacher. He the stra ere T'- fx tOSDil has two stepsisters, Lillian and Evangeline, 1 By Mary Delach Leonard Of the Post-Dispatch vrv Charles was born in 1930, Lindbergh tried unsuccessfully to manage the media. The kidnapping and murder of the toddler in 1932 unleashed a media circus shocking by even today's standards.

The trial of Bruno Hauptmann, who was found guilty of the child's murder and sentenced to death, was the last straw for Lindbergh. After the so-called "Trial of the Century," he took his wife and newborn son to live overseas. "I think the kidnapping has an awful lot to do with Lindbergh's bitterness toward the American press probably more so than his transatlantic flight and the celebrity that came with that," said Pisano. "He became very bitter." Headfirst into controversy In the early 1940s as Europe went to war, Lindbergh stepped back into the public eye to campaign against U.S. involvement.

He called instead Charles Lindbergh poses with his famous plane in 1927. His grandson, Erik, re-created the historic flight from New York to Paris last week in a modern plane, a Lancair Columbia 300 dubbed the New 1 Spirit of St. Louis. Erik Lindbergh landed Thursday, making the trip in 17 hours, just about half the 33 12 hours it took his grandfather. from his father's first marriage.

1906 November: Lindbergh's father is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota. 1918 June: Excused from school to work the family farm during World War Lindbergh collects his high school diploma in Little Falls, Minn. 1920 Fall: He enrolls at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to study mechanical engineering 1922 Lindbergh is dropped from the university for poor grades. He enrolls as a flying student at Nebraska Standard Aircraft Corp and spends the summer as a wing-walker and skydiverfor barnstorming pilots.

1923 March: Lindbergh buys his first plane, a war-surplus Curtjss "Jenny." He flies his father throughout Minnesota during a failed Senate campaign. October: "Daredevil" Lindbergh attends the St Louis Air Meet at Lambert Field, the world's biggest aviation show to date. 1924 March: Lindbergh, 22, reports to Brooks Field, south of San Antonio, Texas, for training in the Army Air Service. 1925 March: Lindbergh graduates from military flying school and is commissioned a second lieutenant in the reserves. Searchingfor work, he returns to St.

Louis where the Robertson brothers, Frank and William, promise to hire him as chief pilot for their new airmail route. a 1 rt mm lantic flight. On Saturday morning, a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis will land at Lambert Field at 8:20 a.m., the same time Lindbergh landed here in 1927 on his way from San Diego. The plane will then move to the Spirit of St.

Louis airport in Chesterfield, where the public can view it from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Throughout his life Lindbergh refused to mark anniversaries of his flight, preferring instead to keep moving on. Reeve Lindbergh hopes the anniversary celebration will remind people of the scope of her father's life. "I'd like them to have a good time and celebrate history," she said.

"For me, when I look at my parents' lives I like to see the growth. I see that you can come through horrible things and that you can grow from controversy. You can outgrow your limitations again and again. I think they did that. It's a very American story" Reporter Mary Delach Leonard: E-mail: mleonard Phone: 314-340-8260 Lindbergh meets Rudolf Hess (left), one of top aides, during a visit to Germany in men reportedly discussed their experiences pilots.

Lindbergh toured Nazi airfields and factories and reported what he saw to the U.S. When Charles Lindbergh landed at LeBourget Airport outside Paris about 10:20 p.m. on May 21, 1927, he was truly a man who needed no introduction. People around the world had taken up the watch. They listened to radio reports and phoned newspaper offices for word of the Spirit of St.

Louis. Lindbergh, of course, had no idea that he was creating such a commotion. He carried no radio on the 33i2-hour flight. Lindbergh had a passport and letters of introduction, but he wouldn't need them. The 150,000 people waiting at the airport knew who he was.

As that wave of admiring humanity engulfed him that night, Lindbergh's life was set on a new course to uncharted and unparalleled celebrity. "Lindbergh was the first national popular hero. He was huge. Imagine all the sports heroes today wrapped up in one and you have Charles Lindbergh. It is almost inconceivable how big he was," said Robert van der Linden, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

He and Do-minick Pisano, chair of the museum's Aeronautics Division, are co-authors of a new book, "Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis" (Abrams, The book traces Lindbergh's path from unknown barnstormer to hero from private citizen to public figure who struggled to keep out of the headlines, but then jumped feet first into controversy. There's also a healthy dose of facts and figures on Lind-bergh's famous Ryan monoplane, which is permanently displayed at the Smithsonian. Van der Linden points out that Lindbergh, who was only 25 in 1927, was amazed at the public outpouring. He wasn't the first to fly across the Atlantic the feat had been accomplished numerous times.

"But his timing was just right," said van der Linden. "His flight came at a time when aviation was coming of age. It was still seen as the purview of eccentrics and barnstormers. The fact that he could fly not just across the Atlantic but between two major cities over that extremely long distance 3,610 miles really awoke people in the United States and Europe and around the world to the possibility of commercial air travel. You can trace almost an explosion in the development of the aviation industry from his flight in 1927." But as celebrity was generously bestowed, so was privacy ruthlessly taken.

Lindbergh's courtship and marriage to Anne Morrow in 1929 was tasty fodder for media hungry for news of their superstar. When the couple's first child, Charles Adolf Hitler's 1937. The as plane government. 4 Lindbergh Arena in keep the him in majority of Americans, said van der Linden. But in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept.

11, 1941, Lindbergh went too far he blamed the British, the Jews and the Roosevelt administration for pushing the United States into war. His published writings and personal journals of the day reflect his belief in the superiority of the Caucasian race. "The Des Moines speech in 1941 turned public opinion against him in huge numbers," said Pisano. Letter writers to the Post-Dispatch reflected that turn. "One question, please, Mr.

Lindbergh: If groups which promote the de-fense of America against Nazi-ism are "warmongers," what would you term those groups promoting racial prejudice in America?" wrote a reader a few days after the speech. Other letter writers blasted Lindbergh as an anti-Semite. "He goes from being one of the most celebrated and heroic figures in American history to almost a goat by the time World War II comes around," said Pisano. "He resigns his commission and then after Pearl Harbor he wants to become part of the military again and the Roosevelt administration who he has angered and alienated tells- him no we can't take the risk." Reeve Lindbergh, the youngest child of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, acknowledges that her father's isolationist stance was representative of many Americans, but she has trouble accepting some of the words her father chose words which today would be considered racist or anti-Semitic. "That was the vocabulary he knew, and it was very common," she said.

"Part of it is very painful to me because I never knew him to speak with prejudice about or to anybody. So for me to read it I can't pretend it's other than what it is. "I can't defend the language, but I also think it was not unusual for his day," she added. "I don't think it is full of hatred I think it was reflective of a way of thinking that was very prevalent." After the war, Lindbergh's reputation was repaired, partly because he had been so outspoken in his distrust of the Soviet Union. President Dwight Eisenhower made him a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve and an adviser irA -fe I MK pJ to the Strategic Air Command.

Back to the Earth In his later years, Lindbergh took on another cause the environment. By the '60s, he regretted the damage technology was causing to the planet, and he became active with the World Wildlife Fund. "I realized that if I had to choose I would rather have birds than airplanes," he wrote in a Reader's Digest article. Lindbergh died of cancer in Hawaii on Aug. 26, 1974.

His wife, Anne Morrow, a gifted writer who shared his love of the environment, died on Feb. 7, 2001. Today, the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, which is based in Minnesota, works to carry on their message of balancing technology and conservation. "Father was a technological man who really cared about the Earth," said Reeve Lindbergh, who serves as president of the nonprofit foundation.

The Lindbergh Foundation is holding a dinner in St. Louis on Friday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the transat William Robertson IB. Lambert NaroM Bixby I -) ROBERTSON 2 II Harry F. Knight LAMBERT FIELD Louie's lunch ran a cafe A photo wall unofficial center (Approximate Robertson William Robertson, first airmail routes route). He and backers.

LADUE 2601 Warson and Lindbergh Harry H. Knight). CENTRAL WEST OThe Racquet private club backers. The Bar room of the persuaded the Hortense Lindbergh backer former mayor (which produced most prominent himself, he Hortense Earl C. Thompson.

Indemnity Lindbergh flight. DOWNTOWN 4 POST-DISPATCH FILE PHOTO speaks at an America First rally at The St. Louis in May 1941. His campaign to United States out of war in Europe landed controversy. October: Robertson Aircraft is awarded the St Louis to Chicago airmail route; Lindbergh begins surveying the route, arranging for landing strips along the way.

November: Lindbergh joins the 1 10th Observation Squadron of the 35th Division of the Missouri National Guard, stationed at Lambert Field. He is commissioned a first lieutenant 1926 April 15: Lindbergh makes inaugural mail route flight to Chicago. Fall: Despite sometimes harrowing weather and emergency jumps, Lindbergh becomes bored with flying the mail and dreams of winning the Orteig Prize $25,000 for the first nonstop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris. He searches for financial backers and hits pay dirt with Harry Hall Knight, a broker with Knight, Dysart and Gamble, who is president of the St. Louis Flying Club, and Harold M.

Bixby, a vice president of State National Bank, an avid aviator who heads the Chamber of Commerce. They agree to raise the $15,000 Lindbergh estimates he will need. 1927 February: After failed negotiations with noted manufacturers, Lindbergh orders a monoplane from the Ryan Aeronautical Co. in San Diego. The price: $10,580.

Lindbergh has astonished fellow aviators with his plan to cross the Atlantic solo in a single-engine plane. Skeptical reporters dub him "The Fly-rngFooL" May 8: French fliers Charles Nungesser and i Francois Coli leave Paris for New York and are never heard from again. May 10-11: Lindbergh leaves San Diego in The Spirit qf St Louis. He sets a speed Louis, 1,500 miles in 14 hours, 25 minutes. 12: Lindbergh leaves Lambert for New York shortly after 8 a.m.

He sets another 'record, making the trip in 7 hours, 22 min-'utes. May 20: After a week of weather delays, Lindbergh sets out at dawn for Paris. He hasn't slept in nearly 24 hours. Though he is unaware of it he carries no radio mil-Sons around the world listen for word of his flight May 21: Lindbergh lands at LeBourget Airport outside Paris at about 10:20 p.m., local time. He has battled overwhelming fatigue, flying 3,610 miles in 33 172 hours.

An estimated 150,000 spectators mob him; souvenir-hunters tear off hunks of his plane. May 23: The French government awards him the Cross of the Legion of Honor. He spends a week in Francs, then Belgium and Britain, collecting honors and praise before huge crowds. June 1 1: President Calvin Coolidge awards him the Distinguished Frying Cross before more than 250,000 gathered at the Washington Monument June 13: More than 4 million New takers turn out for a parade in his honor. for a buildup of American defense and warned against trusting the Soviet Union.

He was criticized for refusing to return a Nazi medal given to him for his contribution to aviation. After moving his family back to the United States, Lindbergh began speaking at rallies of the America First organization. In St. Louis, 15,000 heard him speak at The Arena. "Lindbergh was once affectionately called the Lone Eagle by the American people he now deserves another title, American Eagle, for his fearless fight to help prevent our country from becoming involved in another European war," wrote a Post-Dispatch reader after that rally.

In those days, Lindbergh seemed to be speaking for a AREA shack (now gone). Louis De Hatre frequented by Lindbergh and other fliers. was reserved for killed fliers. It was the of activity for news at the airfield. location) Aircraft (now gone).

Founded by aviator who in the 1920s established the from St. Louis to Chicago (Lindbergh's his brother Frank were Lindbergh (Approximate location) Road. Former home of stockbroker backer Harry F. Knight (and father of END Club, 476 North Kingshighway. A where 1927 members included all of the Racquet Club claims it was in the Oak club that Major Albert Bond Lambert others to support Lindbergh.

Place. Former home of Lambert, and namesake of Lambert Field. A and president of Lambert Pharmaceutical Listerine), Lambert was the city's aviation booster. A pioneer aviator learned how to fly from Orville Wright. Place.

Former home of Lindbergh backer Thompson, vice president of the Company of America, was the first backer approached with the idea of a transatlantic 319 N. 4th Street The Security Building, formally home of the State National Bank and office of Lindbergh backer Harold Bixby. Aviation enthusiast Bixby was president of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and suggested the airplane be called The Spirit of St 401 Olive Street (now a parking lot). Former office site of Lindbergh backer and stockbroker Harry H.

Knight. Knight president of the St Louis Frying Club, was the one who brought Harold Bixby (whose office 75th anniversary events The new "Lindbergh" exhibit opens Sunday at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. The display features hundreds of artifacts donated by Lindbergh, including his flight suit, papers and trophies. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

daily, except Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays Tickets: $7 adults; $6 seniors; $4 students; free admission for Missouri Historical Society members and children 6 and under; free admission to the general public from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays, 's Information: 314-746-4599 1 The Midwest Chorale will perform "Der Lindberghflug" (The Lindbergh Flight), a 1929 at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday in MacDermott Grand Hall. On Saturday, a replica of the Spirit of St Louis will land at Lambert Field. The time 8:20 a.m. commemorates the moment 75 years ago when Lindbergh stopped in St Louis to meet with his financial backers before heading to New York for his transatlantic flight The U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America will perform, and Mayor Francis Slay will say a few words.

The public is invited to see the plane from 1 to 5 p.m. at Spirit of St Louis airport in Chesterfield. Bring a camera and have your picture taken with the Spirit and a Charles Lindbergh-lookalike. The event is sponsored by the Lindbergh Foundation and the Experimental Aircraft Association of Oshkosh, Wis. Han? H.

liijM was a block north) into the project Source: The Spirit of St Louis By Charles Lindbergh. Post Dispatch archives POST-DISPATCH Tbneflne continued EV7.