Ormer Locklear Collection

Ormer Leslie Locklear was born on October 28, 1891 in Greenville, Texas. At a young age, his parents moved to Fort Worth, Texas and in 1911 that he witnessed the early cross-country aviator Calbraith P. Rogers land to fix a clogged fuel line. This spurred an early interest in flying in Locklear, and later in that year he and his brother built their own glider. Locklear went to work, as a carpenter, and in 1915, he married Ruby Graves. On October 25, 1917, Ormer Locklear enlisted in the United States Army Air Service in San Antonio, and was sent to Camp Dick in Austin, Texas for training. He was later transferred to Barron Field near Fort Worth to complete his pilot training. Locklear mastered a number of aviation stunts while learning to fly at Barron, including leaving the cockpit of a plane in flight (according to stories in order to reattach a dangling radiator cap, and in November of 1918, being one of the first people to transfer between to aircraft in mid-air. Locklear was promoted to a position as squadron commander at Barron Field, and was placed in charge of cross-country flight training.

On May 7, 1919, Locklear left the United States Air Service with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and with two of his fellow discharged pilots (Milton Elliot and Shirley Short) decided to make a career out of barnstorming. They toured the country performing a number of feats, and Locklear is credited with demonstrating the first public mid-air aircraft transfer at the Uniontown Speedway in Pennsylvania on May 16, 1919. In June of that year, Universal pictures contacted the Locklear, to star in an aviation action-adventure movie called The Great Air Robbery. Locklear preformed all of his own flying stunts, including the first transfer from a moving automobile to a flying aircraft. He also met, and became involved with a Hollywood starlet named Viola Dana.

Locklear continued to fly in barnstorming expeditions throughout the rest of 1919, and the beginning of 1920. Later that year, he was cast in Fox Film’s The Skywayman. On August 2, 1920, filming for The Skywayman had almost completed, and Locklear only needed to complete one final stunt. He was supposed to simulate his aircraft crashing into the ground during nighttime shooting. In order to signal Locklear when to pull up and prevent a crash, a number of landing lights were supposed to be turned off when he reached a safe altitude to pull out of the dive. As Locklear entered the dive, he was either blinded or disoriented by the landing lights; or the lights were not turned off in time for him to successfully pull out of the dive. Sources are unclear as to which was the cause of the crash and Locklear and his co-pilot Milton Elliot were killed when their aircraft impacted with the ground. Viola Dana, who was on set to watch Locklear’s stunt, witnessed the horrific crash.

Locklear’s body was given a funeral procession in Los Angeles, as it was escorted to the train that would take it home to Fort Worth. Locklear’s body arrived in Fort Worth on August 7, and on August 8, a funeral service was held at Mulkey Memorial Methodist Church. Locklear was later buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Although Locklear’s career was brief, he originated a number of stunts that would become the staples of barnstorming shows around the world. In 1975, the Robert Redford movieThe Great Waldo Pepper was dedicated to Ormer Locklear, and several other airmen who had died performing aviation stunts, and drew on elements of his life for its story. Another honor was received in 1991 Ormer Locklear’s grave at Greenwood Cemetery was dedicated with a Texas Historical Marker.

Source

Ronnie, Austin. 1973. "Locklear: The Man Who Walked on Wings." A.S. Barnes and Company: Cranbury, NJ.

Source

"Ormer Locklear Collecton," Biographical Information, Folder 1, Box 1, Series I, History of Aviation Collection, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.