Parkdale native Mary Frances Files Silitch, who has worked for over 40 years in aviation journalism and who is also a pilot with experience in over 250 kinds of aircraft, will be inducted in Arkansas Aviation Fall of Fame on October 28 at the Aerospace Education Center in Little Rock.
The daughter of William Thomas and Johnnie Caldwell Files, she attended the Parkdale schools through the ninth grade when the high school consolidated with Wilmot. After spending her sophomore and junior years attending Wilmot High, she graduated from All Saints School in Vicksburg, MS.
Her great-great-grandfather was the first judge in Ashley County and another ancestor was the state's lieutenant governor. Her first flight was at the age of four, when her father took her up in an open cockpit cropduster, and they flew over the family farm.
Mary went to college at Southwestern College, now Rhodes College, in Memphis. During this same period, she was also writing. When she was in Dr. John Quincy Wolf's freshman English class at Southwestern at Memphis, he asked the students to write a paper on any subject, but it should be written vividly. Mary Frances was stunned when he announced that only one student had done what he asked, "Miss Files." She began her writing career with the Sou'wester, serving as managing editor. Her first interview was with Tom Drake, star of Meet Me in St. Louis, who was appearing in a production of Stalag 17 in Memphis. She also wrote about college news for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Her first big story, about homecoming, was scheduled for the first page of the second section when Elvis Presley got into a fight at a filling station and bumped her story off the front page.
She earned a degree in English at Southwestern before going to work for a real estate lawyer in Memphis for three years. She said in a telephone interview that the lawyer "picked his secretaries from the Southwestern yearbooks." She added, "I did all the work, researched the titles, drew up deeds, and deposited the money in his account. I decided that I was on the wrong side of the typewriter."
There followed a year in law school. However, she noted, "there were only two women lawyers in Memphis, and all they did was divorce cases."
She then decided to move to New York where she had two friends, and within two weeks, had a job as an assistant copy editor for Mademoiselle. "I was getting paid to read fiction," she said.
She then worked as an editorial assistant at The Saturday Evening Post, at double the salary she had made, but after only about two months, she was one of about 1,000 people the magazine laid off.
While in New York, she met her future husband, Nicholas, who lived on the same street that she did.
Her next job was with McGraw Hill Book Company where she learned to be a copy editor. One of her friends mentioned that he was planning to go to work for Flying Magazine, and the magazine would teach him to fly.
She said that she did not even know that there were magazines that were devoted to aviation until then. When she went to a newsstand, she found a copy of Flying Magazine, "and it was full of mistakes. I wrote them that they needed me, too." The result was a job with the magazine.
She worked as associate editor of Flying Magazine from 1965 to 1969. She also started taking flying lessons, and after that job, "I never had to look for a job in aviation again," she said. The magazine was based in Philadelphia, and she just went to that city to work during the week and returned to New York for weekends.
She then became the executive editor of Air Progress Magazine, staying in that position until 1974. Air Progress Magazine was initially based in New York, but when it relocated to California, Mary moved to Washington D. C. as editor and director of news of the National Pilots Association.
In 1977, she became director of public relations and editor of the newsletter and airport report for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. During the same period, she was also associate editor of Pilot Magazine and executive director of the Seaplane Pilots Association and editor of Water Flying Magazine.
In 1987, she became editor in chief for Private Pilot Magazine, based in Los Angeles, where she was responsible for planning, editing and producing a 100 page full color monthly publication. In that position, Mary was the first female editor in chief for an aviation magazine in the United States. She then went on to become editor in chief of Professional Pilot Magazine, based in Alexandria, VA, again responsible for planning, editing and producing a 100 page full color monthly publication. Since 1996, she has been contributing editor of Aviation International News, which publishes a monthly magazine and a daily 160-page news magazine at all the large air shows around the world, so she has traveled to worldwide to places including Paris, London, Dubai and Singapore.
As a pilot, she has a private pilot license, with multi engine, instrument and sea ratings. She has flown more than 250 types of aircraft and has logged 5,000 flight hours. She also set a world speed record for a light turbine amphibian and owned a Cessna 185 with amphibious floats and Beech C33A single-engine airplane. Silitch got her multi-engine rating at Washington National Airport, her instrument rating at Dulles International Airport and her seaplane rating in Long Island Sound.
She said that she no longer flies. After she and her husband left Washington, they lived on a boat for six years, "and we were never around the airplane to keep it current and to keep me current," so they sold it to a friend.
Among the honors she has won are the 1982 Aviation/Space Writers Association National Award for best magazine article and Aviation/Space Writers Association Earl D. Osborn Award. In 1992, she was the Ninety-Nines Pilot of the Year, Orange County Chapter, and Pilot of the Year in the Southwest Section.
In 2006, she received the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism Excellence, aviation's top journalism award. She also received safety commendations from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1982, Minnesota Department of Aeronautics in 1986 and the Seaplane Pilots Association in 1987.
After living on a 60-foot boat for six years, Silitch and her husband now live in North Granville, N.Y., an area halfway between Albany and Montreal, Quebec, and about as rural as Parkdale, where they are restoring a 1790 Colonial house and garden. She is secretary of the Granville Democratic Committee and of the Slate Valley Garden Club and communications chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee. She also serves as a member of the board of trustees of the Pember Library and Museum.
With the death of her parents and Ashley County sister, Paula Files, she does not get back to Parkdale very often. Her last remaining cousin in the area, Mark Hawkins, died only a few weeks ago. Before the October 28 induction ceremony, she and her husband Nicholas will be coming to Ashley County to visit the family farm northeast of Parkdale.
She will join at least two other people with Ashley County links in the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame. One is John Carroll Cone, who was born July 4, 1891, in Snyder. A fighter pilot, he had one confirmed kill and three probable kills in World War I. He established the first Arkansas National Guard air wing and served as state auditor for two terms, flying across the state in his own biplane. With W. F. Moody, he formed the Arkansas Aircraft Company which later became Command-Aire Corporation. One of his planes won the All-America Flying Derby, a 5,541-mile race, which began in Detroit and ended eleven days later in Detroit after overnight control stops in Buffalo, New York; New York City; Cincinnati, Little Rock; Houston; San Angelo, Texas; Douglas, Arizona; Los Angeles, Ogden, Utah; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Chicago before returning to Detroit. Command-Aire planes were one of only two designs to pass the 1929 Guggenheim Safety Trial, in which all existing aircraft designs were test-flown and judged for safety. The company build only about 300 planes before failing in the Great Depression.
The other local member of the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame is Zemery Melvern "Jack" Stell, for whom the Crossett airport is named, who was one of three inductees in 2007.
He entered the U. S. Navy on December 3, 1943, and was trained as an aviation machinist. After his discharge in 1946, he returned to Hamburg and worked at the airport as a mechanic. He also received his pilot's license and began to purchase and rebuild aircraft. After the airport was moved from Hamburg to Crossett, he became the airport manager. He also contracted with Crossett Lumber Company and later Georgia-Pacific to fly executives as needed.
He also served as a member of the Arkansas Aeronautics Commission including several terms as chairman. Even after he left commercial aviation, he continued to serve on the Crossett Airport Commission and as airport manager.
Stell was instrumental in the creation and growth of not only the Crossett Airport, but also general aviation activity in Southeast Arkansas. For over 30 years, he was the airport manager and sole operator on the field, working in aircraft maintenance and offering flight instruction, charter services and aircraft sales. He retired from active flying in 1978 and was a part of several different businesses until his death in 2005. In 1992, the Crossett Airport was renamed Z. M. "Jack" Stell Field in honor of Mr. Stell's contributions and dedication to aviation in southeast Arkansas.
The induction will begin with a reception from 6-7 p.m. in the Aerospace Education Center at 3301 East Rooseveltin Little Rock on October 28 followed by the banquet. Tickets are $125 each and may be reserved by calling 501-376-4629, ext. 101
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