Lindbergh visit to Arkansas recalled decades later

JONESBORO — Did you know that Lucky Lindy landed near Weiner?

Not too many folks know that Charles Lindbergh actually did land near the small Poinsett County town sometime in the early 1920s. He didn’t draw very much publicity, mostly because the aviator wasn’t yet a “celebrity.” Lindbergh made his historic non- stop solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927, a few years after his visit to Arkansas.

The visit was brought to light again a couple of years ago during a Weiner School history project that interviewed a number of community members, many of them elderly. One of them was Louella Covington Fryman, the mother of former Weiner Schools Superintendent Charlotte Wright. During the interview with the students, Fryman did not mention seeing the famous aviator.

The students also interviewed former Mayor S. P. Schwarz, who showed them a photo taken in the 1920s near Weiner when Lindbergh and some other aviators landed in a field north of the town.

“When he showed me the photo, he told me that he got it from Louella ( Fryman),” said Patricia Hesse, gifted and talented teacher at the Weiner campus of the Harrisburg School District. “I called Mrs. Fryman; she remembered it and told me the story.” Fryman has since passed away. She was 96. Hesse said Schwarz also has a note given him by Fryman that states, “First plane to land in Weiner, just north of town where the Assembly of God church is today.”

Schwarz said he obtained that photo and others from Fryman, then he found other old photos in Weiner that were being gathered for a history project. He said the thought that Lindbergh had landed at Weiner fascinated him.

The photo depicts five young aviators standing beside a biplane with “Eberts Field, Lonoke, Ark.,” painted on its side in block letters. The plane appears to be a Curtis JN4, known as a Jenny.

The flight in the Spirit of St. Louis was still a few years away, but at that time any aviator was kind of a hero and an adventurer, as there weren’t too many airplanes flying through the Arkansas skies at that time. The fliers were probably practicing to become mail plane pilots.

Historians say Lindbergh had additional Arkansas connections. The first was probably a forced landing near Lake Village in Chicot County in April 1923. The story goes that Lindbergh was flying between Mississippi and Houston, Texas, when he had engine trouble and landed near Lake Chicot in an open space used as a golf course.

An article in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online says the building nearest to where Lindbergh landed was the clubhouse, which was sometimes used as an inn by the caretaker b( euro) ” a man with the surname Henry. The Henrys extended their hospitality to the young pilot.

In his book “We,” Lindbergh recalled that after repairing his plane, he offered his host a ride, which the host turned down. So Lindbergh tied up the plane and secured it for the night. Later, noticing the evening’s bright moon and clear sky, Lindbergh said he would like to see what the Arkansas territory looked like from above at night, and he again invited Henry to go along. This time Henry agreed, and the pair took a brief flight along the Mississippi River and over Lake Village, the book said.