Kay Lawrence was a lot of things. She was smart. She was athletic. She was gutsy. Being the only woman in the aviation class at her university didn’t stop her. It led her to join the military and sacrifice her life for the war effort.

Kathryn “Kay” Barbara Lawrence was born December 3, 1920, in North Dakota. Her parents, Frank Harley Lawrence and Chrissie Lawrence married when they were 35 and 18. Frank was from Wisconsin and Chrissie had immigrated from Scotland in 1916.[i] Before she came along, the family had lived in Washington, where her older brother, Frank Harley Jr. was born.

Frank and Chrissie lived in Grand Forks as they waited on their baby daughter. The couple lived in a rental home with Frank Jr. their two-year-old. Frank Sr. was an engineer with the Great Northern Railway.[ii] In 1925, the family added one more boy, William E. Lawrence.

By 1940, as the war years loom, the family is still living in their own home in Grand Forks. Father, Frank, is supporting them as an engineer for the steam railroad. Kay’s brother, Frank Jr., also works for the steam railroad but as a fireman. While Kay attends college and her brother, William, is in high school, their mother keeps house.[iii]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

According to the Grand Forks Harold, after high school, Kay furthered her schooling by earning a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of North Dakota. While in college, she was a cheerleader and a member of Delta Zeta Sorority.[iv] In athletics, Kay was a top swimmer and held the speed skating record at the university.[v] She graduated in 1942.

Known as a woman who liked to try new things[vi], Kay tackled learning to fly. In addition to her university studies, she spent time during college earning a private pilot license from the University of North Dakota’s College of Engineering and Mines through the Civil Aeronautics Authority.[vii] She was the first woman there to earn a private pilot license, earning it in 1940.[viii]

According to her nephew, in a University of North Dakota article, she would be questioned why she would want to pursue flying planes. He said she would reply “if you get to fly the most powerful, up-to-date airplanes for free, then what’s the question?” [ix]

Her mother watched her first solo flight in 1940. She recalled it in a 1996 newspaper interview at the age of 99. “I was scared to death. She came right down and landed – right in a puddle. But she made it,” Chrissie Lawrence told The Bismarck Tribune.[x]

The UND yearbook photo of Kay in 1942 had a caption reading “Coed with a man’s job.”

However, The Hope Pioneer newspaper noted cranking an airplane propeller was a woman’s job as far as Kay was concerned. Calling her 1 in 100, because she was the only woman with 100 men in the UND flight training program.[xi]

After her college graduation, Kay moved across the country to the West coast, taking a job in Seattle with Boeing Aircraft.[xii]

While Kay is settling into Seattle and her job at Boeing, her brother, William, enlists in the Marines just before the holidays in November of 1942. By March of 1943, he’s serving in the Pacific theater.[xiii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Kay Lawrence joins her brother in service just 8 months later. She enlisted in the WASPS on July 5, 1943. She trained in the Class 43W8 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.[xiv]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the need to tap into women to increase manpower in the war. First news of the effort to take women pilots came in late 1942. Women had to pass through an interview process before being allowed to make a formal application and have a physical exam. The requirements gradually changed so April of 1944, applicants then took an Aviation Cadet qualifying examination. The requirements included American citizenship, an age range of 21 to 35 years old, a high school education and the women must know how to fly. They needed to provide a commercial pilot license with not less than 200 hours of logged flying time that included cross-country experience. When there were not enough women with 200 hours to fill positions, the required experience was lowered to 100 hours and later to 35 hours. The very first women’s flight class was named 43-W-1 for 1943-women-first class.[xv]

A big difference between men and women pilot candidates in WWII was cost. Women had to pay for their own flight lessons and flying time in order to accrue enough hours to apply. Women also paid for their own way to Texas to train and if they did not graduate, they had to pay their own way home. If a woman was killed, as Kay was, her family was expected to pay for the return of the body.

HER LAST DAY

Her last day came in the middle of the summer. On August 4th, Kay took up PT-19A #42-34157[xvi] for a training flight. It went into a vertical dive and was spinning out of control. According to a Grand Rapids newspaper article, pilots have said spinning in a downward motion, like her descent, a black out would have occurred. She bailed from the plane as it plummeted and never pulled the ripcord of her parachute.[xvii] The crash occurred 15 miles north of Avenger Field.[xviii]

Kay was 22.

COMMENDATIONS

Congressional Gold Medal[xix]

World War II Victory Medal

United States Aviator Badge Army

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal[xx]

MEMORIALS

2021: Members of the University of North Dakota Women in Aviation chapter placed flowers and a flag on Kay’s grave as part of a Memorial Day effort to honor WASPs. In addition, the group named their annual scholarship for Kay.

2006: A full 20-member honor guard ceremony was held for Kathryn Lawrence at Memorial Park Cemetery. The ceremony included a flag folding, an invocation, Taps and a 21-gun salute. It was held to remember Kathryn and to make-up for the military funeral she did not receive in 1943 because at that time WASPs were not considered full military. Although it was 63 years later, her nephews were able to attend and honor their aunt.[xxi]

A monument to the 38 WASPs killed in the line of duty can be found at their old base in Sweetwater, Texas.[xxii]

WASP Pilot Kathryn B. Lawrence is remembered at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, in El Paso County. The marker can be found in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery, on Parade Loop west of Stadium Boulevard.[xxiii]

HER GRAVE

A fellow WASP pilot traveled all the way from Texas to North Dakota to accompany Kathryn Lawrence’s body.[xxiv]

WASP Pilot Kathryn B. Lawrence is buried at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Her parents were laid to rest near her.[xxv]

AFTER HER DEATH

Kay’s brother, PFC William E. Lawrence, was also a WWII sacrifice. A Marine, he was killed on Sept. 15, 1944, on Palau Island.[xxvi]

RESEARCH NOTES

Kay’s father, Frank Lawrence, was married prior to his marriage to Chrissie. He married his first wife, May Lawrence, in 1909 when he was 29. Research did not turn up what happened to May. The 1910 census shows they had been married one year and had no children.[xxvii] In the 1915 state census, he appears single and no wife or children are listed under his name.[xxviii]

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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