The last time the Powderpuff Derby stopped in McCook

Oklahoma City was chosen as the starting point for the 2007 Powderpuff Derby, the only All Woman Transcontinental air race flying today. From June 19-22 contestants will fly a 2,400- mile route from Wiley Post Field in Oklahoma City to New Brunswick, Canada.

What makes this race significant in this part of the country is that McCook has been chosen as a refueling stop for the 2007 event, the first time this has happened since 1971!

The term "race" in this case is a bit of a misnomer, as the Derby is really an attempt to fly the perfect cross-country route.

The race is not won by speed or the size and power of a team's aircraft, but rather the efficiency and accuracy a team exhibits in each aspect of the flight. Teams are rated based on their performance compared to the aircraft's handicap. Because of the intricate factoring used in measuring achievement it is impossible to gauge a team's performance in relation to other teams in the race until the competition is over.

Women's Air Racing began in 1929 when aviation pioneers, Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, and Louise Thadin joined 20 of the leading women aviators of the day to fly their planes from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, site of the National Air Races of the '20s. Humorist and aviation enthusiast, Will Rogers was on hand to witness the start of the race.

He noticed that most of the women took time to check their make-up and powder their noses before entering their planes for takeoff, and remarked, "That's not a race. It looks more like a Powderpuff Derby to me." And the name stuck.

But those 20 women were serious about flying. Said Louise Thadin, "To us, the successful completion of the Derby was of more import than life or death … the public was skeptical of airplanes and air travel … We women of the Derby were out to prove that flying was safe … to sell aviation to the layman.

In 1929, there were but 70 women in all of America who held an FAA approved pilot's license, and of those 70, only 40 met the race's less than stringent requirements -- 100 hours of solo flight, with 25 hours of Cross-Country flight. Each entrant was required to carry a gallon of water and three days food supply.

Contestants flew and navigated the course to Cleveland over eight days, using only dead reckoning and road maps. Remarkably, 14 of the 20 starters finished the race, which was won by Louise Thadin, who later, in the '30s, also captured the prestigious Bendix Air Race (which was open to both men and women).

The original Powderpuff Derby was a product of the Ninety nines, a women flyers organization, which after 1947 went by the name of AWTAR (All Women Transcontinental Air Race). This continued as a popular race until 1977, when rising costs of flying and lack of corporate interest caused cessation of the event.

Since 1977 The Air Race Classic, still in association with the Ninety Nines, has stepped in to continue the tradition of transcontinental speed competition for women pilots and has staged its premier race, still referred to as the Powderpuff Derby.

In 1971 the AWTAR Powderpuff Race was a very big event. Some 100 women entered the race, which began in Calgary, Canada and ended some 2,400 miles later in Baton Rouge, La. One of the refueling stops that year was at McCook, thanks to the efforts of one McCook woman, Marion Larmon, at the time McCook's only active female pilot.

Marion, the wife of Harold Larmon, the President of McCook's 1st National Bank, had begun flying some five years earlier, when her daughter, Courtney graduated from college and her son, Craig was away at the University of Nebraska. Marion felt that she needed a new hobby, something that would challenge her abilities, even though she already had a busy schedule---as a painter, a soloist in the Matinee Music Club and Church choir, part-time secretary of McCook's United Fund, and fill in employee at the bank, in addition to her homemaker duties and Harold's companion to numerous out-of-town bank meetings.

Marion was and still is a very organized person, with a great store of energy. She not only took to her new hobby of flying with great gusto, qualifying for commercial, glider, and instrument tickets and becoming part owner of a Cessna 182 (later a Beech Debonnair), she also became active in the Nebraska Chapter of the women's flying organization, Ninety Nines.

In that capacity she served as the Co-Chairman of the Kearney fuel stop for the AWTAR 1969 race. That experience led her to promote McCook as a refueling stop for the 100 teams competing in the 1971 AWTAR race.

The Powderpuff Derby race seemed to capture the collective imagination of the citizens of McCook. Marion Larmon was named "McCook Gas Stop Chairman" for the '71 race. The Chamber of Commerce, under the direction of Chamber Director, Jim Suiter, was a willing participant. Together, they coordinated efforts of city officials, McCook pilots and civic groups to make the AWTAR contestants feel very welcome to Southwest Nebraska.

Thirty eight planes of Powderpuff contestants refueled in McCook that year, including Trudy Cooper, wife of Astronaut Gordon Cooper -- flyers from Canada, Mexico, Hawaii and eight other states. Not all of the women pilots stayed overnight in McCook, some merely refueled and took off immediately for Lincoln, a mandatory stop. But for the time that the women were here, they got a very favorable impression of our city and McCook took on a very festive atmosphere.

Prizes for the first plane to land in McCook, the youngest pilot, the pilot coming the furthest distance, and mementoes of McCook for all the contestants were awarded. Cash prizes, color photos of the pilots and their planes, police escorts, and a courtesy table of refreshments combined to create a very favorable impression of McCook.

There were large crowds at the airport throughout the day to watch the planes and their pilots, to share a bit of the excitement of the race and to offer encouragement to the pilots in their quest to capture the coveted Powderpuff Trophy and a share of the more than $22,000 in prize money.

For the record, though this was not the most important aspect of the race, the winner in 1971 was Gina Richardson of Yakima Washington, flying a Cessna 210. Her first place prize included a check for $10,000. But the most important part of the Derby for most people, pilots and spectators alike, was the honor of being included as a participant.

On Tuesday, June 19, McCook will again become a refueling stop for the planes participating in the 2007 Powderpuff Derby. Unlike the 1971 Derby, this year's event has not been given the status of a major event by the powers that be in McCook, but it is indeed an honor for our city; to have been chosen as a refueling site -- to be a participant in an important event in aviation history, and will be a chance to glimpse a few of the leading women aviators in the world up close and personal.

Source: Gazette articles, personal recollections of Mrs. Larmon and Jim Suiter