We went to the lecture at the SMC museum about Frank Lloyd Wright and saw quite a few of the homes this well-known architect designed.

We once went on a tour of the house Steelcase Co. of Grand Rapids bought and spent several millions of dollars restoring.

The home was for Meyer May, who was a Grand Rapids businessman.

Mr. Wright designed three area homes, one in Benton Harbor and two in St. Joseph.

The one in Benton Harbor was built for an old Dowagiac man, Howard Anthony.

Howard’s father had a milk route and worked out of his home on Orchard Street.
Earl and his wife, Cecil, also had two daughters, Doris and Janet, both younger than Howard.

Howard was an engineer genius and invented a television sweep generator which transformed his radio parts kit factory into a booming $1.5 million business, as he transferred to the manufacture of television kits.

When I got home from the lecture I found in my pack rat collection the Daily News article of the plane cash that killed Howard and two of his 1929 DHS classmates on July 23, 1954.

They were Gordon Paxon and Laurel Brown. Laurel’s wife Florence was also killed.
There were six in the plane. All were killed. The pilot was Gordon Wyrick, co-pilot was W. “Larry” Durham.

Howard was going to buy the $60,000 plane.

He and Mr. Paxon were enroute to the Bahamas for two weeks and were going to drop off Mr. and Mrs. Brown in Miami.

The flight started from Pontiac to go to Florida, but crashed into Brayton Mountain in Tennessee.

They had radioed in at 2:30 that they were flying at about 12,000 feet and crashed five or 10 minutes later into a mountain range, the highest point reported to be only 3,400 feet.
This is a mystery, but later people reported that the plane exploded in the air.

Weather was said to be perfect flying conditions at the time.

State highway police and county officers were at the crash scene within 20 minutes.
As a small boy in the 1930s, I can remember when Howard was taking flying lessons in Benton Harbor.

He would fly in low circles over our houses to let his father know it was him.

At the lecture when the lady was showing a picture of Howard’s Frank Lloyd Wright home in Benton Harbor, I told her I used to be a neighbor of Howard and a man on the other side of the room got up and said he now owns and lives in the house.

I talked with the man later, but I’ve forgotten his name.

One other thing about Howard’s Heath Co., which he bought in 1935 from Niles and moved to Benton Harbor in 1938.

The Heath Airplane Co. was founded in 1910 in Chicago by Edward Heath.

They made a small plane called the Heath “Parasol.”

I don’t know the date of the picture of the Parasol plane I have. But the article said at the time there were only 15 or 20 known to exist and only seven or eight of them that actually fly.

Besides the picture of the plane and one of Howard’s house in Benton Harbor, Peg and I have been to see his Frank Lloyd Wright home.

Boy, it sure is fascinating how fast the leaves grow on our trees in just a few days from being bare.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City.
E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.