Saturday, September 10, 2022

Tribute Planned at Lt. Maynard's Funeral, Sept. 10, 1922

Airmen Will Circle Over Grave As Body Of Maynard Is Buried. . . Flying Parson’s Comrades to Bid Him Farewell—Wife Had Premonition of Disaster

The body of Lieut. Belvin W. Maynard, famed as the “flying parson,” will sleep beneath the plains of Sampson county, over which he roved as barefoot boy.

Airmen from Pope field will swoop low over the quaint little country cemetery during the funeral services, strewing flowers in the path of the cortege bearing the body of Maynard to its final hangar.

Premonition that disaster would follow fast in the wake of the flying parson’s flight at Rutland, Va., Thursday, led Mrs. Maynard to beg him to cancel his engagement.

A stranger to physical fear, the daring airman declined but agreed that it would be his final flight.

He fell 3,000 feet to his death when his plane refused to respond to an attempted tail spin, within a few minutes after he left the ground.

This became known yesterday when the flag-draped casket of the noted flier removed at Wallace en route to the home of Lieutenant Maynard’s father at Harrell’s store.

The body was accompanied by a military escort.

Funeral services will be conducted at the family burying ground, three miles from Kerr, and 13 miles from Wallace, at 3 o’clock this afternoon.

Arrangements have been made to take care of those from a distance, who come to Kerr, and transportation will be provided.

From the front page of The Wilmington Morning Star, Sunday, Sept. 10, 1922

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