Tricking and Treating in the Collection

 

Cecil “Teddy” Kenyon (1905-1985), on the left, and her husband Theodore "Ted" Whitman Kenyon (1899-1978) were a flying family – when they weren’t trick-or-treating, as this 1940s photograph from their collection in the Museum’s Archives Division shows. Teddy learned to fly from Ted, a pilot with Colonial Airlines and inventor, in 1929.  She was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines, the preeminent women’s pilot organization, and won the National Sportswomen Flying Championship in 1933. She later flew with the Civil Air Patrol, and was a test pilot for Grumman Aircraft during World War II – flying, among other planes, the F6F Hellcat – which makes the Kenyons' choice of Halloween costumes fairly appropriate. In 1960, Teddy earned her helicopter pilot’s license and was still flying well into her 70s.