Memorial Day Feature: Legacy of UND’s first woman aviator inspires new generations of pilots
Editor’s note: At UND, the Kay Lawrence Women in Aviation Scholarship is given in honor of Kay Lawrence, the University’s first woman pilot and an aviator who gave her life for her country in World War II. Last week, UND Today told Lawrence’s story through her Grand Forks Central high school and UND college scrapbooks, which recently were sent (by the family of Kay’s best friend in high school and college) to Lawrence’s nephew, Mike Lawrence, in Grand Forks.
In Part 2 of this two-part feature, today’s story is a special Memorial Day item: a story featuring interviews with two winners of the Kay Lawrence scholarship and other female aviators, among them a UND graduate who’s now an Air Force captain and pilot of the F-22 Raptor, a supersonic stealth fighter.
UND Today thanks Patrick C. Miller, retired strategic communications editor for UND Today, for reporting and writing both stories.
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A year after graduating from the University of North Dakota in 1942 with an education degree, a pilot’s license and a job at Boeing Aircraft Co. in Seattle, 22-year-old Kathryn “Kay” Lawrence didn’t need to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
But the desire to serve her country during World War II, the allure of flying and the opportunity to pilot the fastest, most advanced aircraft of the day led UND’s first woman pilot to volunteer to fly military aircraft in noncombat roles. In July 1943, she reported for WASP flight training at Avenger Airfield in Sweetwater, Texas.
Tragically, less than a month into the program, Kay’s life was cut short when the plane she was flying on a solo training mission crashed 15 miles from Avenger Field.
Mike Lawrence, 86, was 5 at the time and scarcely knew his Aunt Kay. However, he remembers the day the family received word of her death in Grand Forks, where Kay grew up and he still lives.
“Momma couldn’t stop crying,” he recalled.
For decades after the war ended, the many contributions of the WASPs and the 38 women pilots from their ranks killed in training and operational accidents were largely forgotten.
It wasn’t until 1977 that President Jimmy Carter signed a bill passed by Congress recognizing the WASPs as military veterans. In 2006, the U.S. Air Force conducted a graveside ceremony in Memorial Park Cemetery memorializing Kay Lawrence with full military honors.
“The WASPs were some of the forgotten, unsung heroes who weren’t formally recognized,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Sawyer “Rizz” Murray, a 2018 UND aviation alum from Rosemount, Minn. “Now we’re finding out more about these women who – just like Kay – put everything on the line to go pursue their dreams, fly and defend their country.”
Today, Murray is living the life Kay Lawrence envisioned more than 80 years ago. She flies the F-22A Raptor for the Air Force as part of a fighter wing based at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and for the Air Force’s F-22 demonstration team. The Air Force bills the Raptor as “the most dominant and advanced air superiority fighter in the world.”
