{"id":41935,"date":"2025-05-22T17:48:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T22:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/?p=41935"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:43:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:43:46","slug":"scrapbooks-reveal-lives-of-unds-first-two-women-aviation-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2025\/05\/scrapbooks-reveal-lives-of-unds-first-two-women-aviation-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrapbooks reveal lives of UND\u2019s first two women aviation students"},"content":{"rendered":"

With World War II on horizon, two friends at UND pursued dreams of flying, as recently opened scrapbooks show<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kay
The two Kay Lawrence scrapbooks returned by Steve Schoenecker to Mike Lawrence, Kay\u2019s nephew in Grand Forks. The scrapbook on the left was compiled while Kay attended Grand Forks Central High School, and the one on the right is from her first two years at UND. On top is a copy of the July 1943 letter Kay wrote to her best friend, Marcy (Gilbertson) Schoenecker, shortly before Kay\u2019s death in a Women’s Airforce Service Pilots training accident. Other mementos from her scrapbooks include a card from flowers and Kay\u2019s retirement card from the Rainbow Girls. Photo by Patrick C. Miller for UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kay
Kay Lawrence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> At UND, the Kay Lawrence Women in Aviation Scholarship is given in honor of Kay Lawrence, the University\u2019s first woman pilot and an aviator who gave her life for her country in World War II. On Tuesday, UND Today will supplement the story below with a special Memorial Day item: a story featuring interviews with several winners of the Kay Lawrence scholarship and other female aviators, among them a UND graduate who’s now an Air Force pilot who flies the F-22 Raptor, a supersonic stealth fighter.<\/em><\/p>\n

The photo at left of Kay Lawrence in UND Special Collections was donated by Marcy Gilbertson-Schoenecker.<\/em><\/p>\n

UND Today thanks Patrick C. Miller, retired strategic communications editor for UND Today, for reporting and writing this story.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

By Patrick C. Miller
\n<\/strong>Special to UND Today<\/p>\n

It was July 28, 1943, when 22-year-old Kathryn \u201cKay\u201d Lawrence \u2014 the first woman to graduate from UND with a pilot\u2019s license \u2014 wrote a letter to her best friend, Marcy (Gilbertson) Schoenecker, who was living in Salina, Kan.<\/p>\n

The U.S. was well into its second year of World War II against the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy. Kay was in her fourth week of training at Sweetwater, Texas, with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)<\/a><\/strong>, a group of volunteers formed to ferry military aircraft from factories to air bases with the intention of freeing up male pilots for combat duty.<\/p>\n

\"Kay
This undated newspaper photo shows Kay Lawrence during pilot training at UND.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Relating her experiences to Marcy, she noted the strictness of the instructor pilots and mentioned that four women cadet pilots had already \u201cwashed out\u201d of the flight training program.<\/p>\n

Kay then added: \u201cI\u2019m working my head silly so if there\u2019s any possibility of my getting through, by gosh, I\u2019ll die trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six days later, Kay was killed during a solo training flight when her plane crashed not far from Avenger Field near Sweetwater. She was one of 38 WASPs to die during the war.<\/p>\n

Her body was returned to Grand Forks, where she was buried in the Lawrence family plot in the Memorial Park Cemetery.<\/p>\n

\"Mike
In this file photo from 2021, Mike Lawrence, nephew of the late Kay Lawrence, joins six members of UND’s Women in Aviation chapter to honor Kay for Memorial Day. From the left are: Anna Hornboster, senior, Rockton, Ill.; Sophia Jensen, senior, Lakeville, Minn.; Abigail Rizac, junior, Northfield, Minn.; Hanna Anderson, senior, Stillwater, Minn.; Hanna Sampel, senior, Forest River, N.D.; Julia Vitale, junior, Rosemount, Minn.; and Elizabeth Bjerke, associate dean, UND Aerospace. Photo by Patrick C. Miller\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long lost scrapbooks return<\/h2>\n
\"Kay<\/a>
Click on image to read clipping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kay\u2019s letter to Marcy recently came to light when a copy of it was returned with two of her scrapbooks and other items to her nephew, 86-year-old Mike Lawrence of Grand Forks. He plans to one day donate Kay\u2019s scrapbooks, letters and photos to UND\u2019s Department of Special Collections<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to leave all this with the university after the family sees it,\u201d Mike said. \u201cI think this is where it belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometime after Kay\u2019s death, her mother, Chrissie Lawrence, gave Marcy a scrapbook Kay made during her high school years and another she compiled while attending UND. Marcy\u2019s son \u2014 Steve Schoenecker, now a retired doctor living in Corvallis, Mont. \u2014 found the scrapbooks among his mother\u2019s belongings after she died in February 2010.<\/p>\n

Although the letter to Marcy is a poignant reminder of sacrifices Americans made during the war, content from the scrapbooks also provides a more personal look at the lives of Kay and Marcy, two young women who grew up best friends in Grand Forks. They entered UND as freshmen in 1938, both with the intention of earning their pilot\u2019s license through the Civil Aeronautics Authority flight training program, then offered through the College of Engineering & Mines<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Kay Lawrence wasn\u2019t UND\u2019s first female pilot, this material would be valuable,\u201d said Curt Hanson, head of Special Collections at UND\u2019s Chester Fritz Library. \u201cIt shows what her life was like at the time she was here at UND. Certainly the fact she was one of the first WASPs gives it a women\u2019s military history application.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Curt
At the Chester Fritz Library, Curt Hanson (left), head of UND Special Collections, and Mike Lawrence examine the scrapbooks of Mike\u2019s aunt, Kay Lawrence, UND\u2019s first woman pilot and a WASP member during World War II. Photo by Patrick C. Miller for UND Today. Below, a newspaper clipping from Kay Lawrence\u2019s scrapbook shows a photo of Kay and Marcy Gilbertson as UND cheerleaders. Click on the image for a higher-resolution version of the clipping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A pre-war snapshot in time<\/h2>\n

The aging covers of two scrapbooks from the late 1930s and early \u201940s can barely contain the tattered yellowed pages holding newspaper clippings grown brittle with time, keepsakes from long-ago events and other mementos from Kay\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a>
Click for larger image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Text and photos within the more than 80-year-old scrapbooks tell the story of two intelligent, vibrant, energetic young women who dreamed of becoming aircraft pilots decades before the founding of UND\u2019s Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences<\/a><\/strong>. They graduated from Grand Forks Central High School together, enrolled at UND and both signed up for pilot training.<\/p>\n

They belonged to the same sorority, were both UND cheerleaders and participated in the same athletic, social and academic activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cKay strikes me as someone who wasn\u2019t just going to sit around and do nothing,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cWhether it was cheerleading, basketball, softball or becoming a pilot, she was not your shrinking violet. She had gusto.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike said his Aunt Kay was probably influenced by her grandmother, Kathryn Harrison, who was a medical doctor in Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s where Kay\u2019s desire to fly came from,\u201d Mike explained. \u201cIf her grandma could be a doctor, she could be a pilot. I believe that with all my heart because she\u2019s named after her grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cKay wanted to do something like my great-grandmother did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two lives take different paths<\/h2>\n
\"View<\/a>
Click on image to read letter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Kay and Marcy\u2019s lives diverged when Marcy left UND after her sophomore year to marry George Schoenecker, a professional baseball player from Minnesota who played for the Grand Forks Chiefs, they remained close and kept in touch. Marcy followed her husband\u2019s baseball career to Kansas, where she started a family.<\/p>\n

Even after Kay\u2019s death, the Lawrence and Schoenecker families remained close. Steve recalled growing up hearing stories about his mother\u2019s best friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must have been quite a force of nature, the two of them together,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no doubt Kay would have been a lifetime friend of my mom\u2019s if she would have survived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underscoring this point is a letter to Kay and Marcy from famous heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey in response to a letter he\u2019d received from them. (Click on the image at right to read the letter.)<\/em> They\u2019d read comments from him disparaging women in athletics, and they let him know they didn\u2019t agree with his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your very intelligent and honest letter,\u201d Dempsey wrote. \u201cAll I have to say is that I have the highest regard and respect for girl athletes, and women in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsomuch as you are <\/em>intelligent,\u201d he continued, \u201cI do not think I need to say anymore, except that I agree heartily with all your statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve felt it was important to keep the scrapbooks, even though he didn\u2019t know if any of Kay\u2019s relatives were still alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes me feel so happy to know that these things were reconnected with the rightful people who should have them,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew Mike would really appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google makes a connection<\/h2>\n
\"Clipping<\/a>
Click on image to read clipping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If not for a May 2021 article in UND Today<\/a><\/strong> on the UND\u2019s Women in Aviation Chapter honoring Kay Lawrence on Memorial Day that year, the connection might not have been made. Steve related how a Google search provided a link to the article revealing that Kay had a living relative in Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

Steve contacted UND about the memorabilia he possessed that once belonged to Kay, inquiring whether it would be possible to contact Mike Lawrence to return it to him. Within days after Mike and Steve visited by phone, the scrapbooks, photos, documents and other items were on their way to Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so lucky this happened,\u201d Mike said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much stuff in here that I didn\u2019t have a clue to some of the things that Kay did. It\u2019s just going to be so much fun to look through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paging through one of the scrapbooks for the first time, Mike remarked, \u201cIt\u2019s all the activities of a young lady going through college. Oh my gosh, it\u2019s unbelievable how detailed this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of aircraft photos in the scrapbook underscore Kay\u2019s interest in aviation. Mike spotted a clipping showing a training aircraft flying above the UND campus and exclaimed, \u201cLook at the aircraft! That\u2019s what she would have been flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"October<\/a>
Click on image to read clipping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kay became the only woman among 40 students at UND to receive her pilot\u2019s license. Statewide, she was the only female of 100 students enrolled in the program at North Dakota colleges. It made her and Marcy the focus of media coverage, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily positive and tended to reflect the attitude of the time.<\/p>\n

Steve noted that Marcy\u2019s scrapbook contains an October 1939 clipping from an unidentified newspaper questioning how she and Kay were selected for pilot training.<\/p>\n

The reporter wrote, \u201cI ran over to see the gals and offer my consolation, and what happened? I asked them how they got in and Kay comes out with \u2014 \u2018Oh we took physical examinations.\u2019 Well girls, evidently there\u2019s nothing to it to hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the clipping, Marcy penned a terse comment, \u201cSome nerve!\u201d<\/p>\n

The winds of war<\/h2>\n

Kay attended UND from 1938 to 1942, graduating with a degree in education and her pilot\u2019s license. She worked for the Boeing Aircraft Co. in Seattle before being accepted for training in the WASP program.<\/p>\n

Toward the back of Kay\u2019s scrapbook, there are blank pages and several loose newspaper clippings from August 1941, all related to the ongoing war in Europe and U.S. Army Air Corps pilot training.<\/p>\n

It appears as though Kay suddenly had less time to keep the scrapbook current. In four months, the Japanese would launch their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, sending America into the war and forever changing the lives of two best friends: Kay and Marcy.<\/p>\n

>> Don\u2019t miss it. <\/strong>Read how Kay Lawrence\u2019s legacy as UND\u2019s first woman aviator is inspiring new generations of pilots in second installment of two-part series<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

>><\/strong>\u00a0Do you want to read more UND Today stories?\u00a0<\/strong>Just\u00a0hit the link<\/strong><\/a> or go to our home page to subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n

\"\"
This tribute to Kay Lawrence is on display at the National WASP World War II Museum in Sweetwater, Texas. Photo courtesy of National WASP World War II Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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