John Gillespie Magee Jr.
St. Clare School (Upper Walmer). Yale University (postponed).
Wrote the poem High Flight,
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
which has since been used …
28 Jan 1986 - Challenger Disaster. President Ronald Reagan used exerts from the Poem High Flight. (4:15sec) (Vice President George H. W. Bush S&B 1948)
18 Jul 1966 - Gemini 10
Apr and May 1942 - Laurel and Hardy, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope joined the Hollywood Victory Caravan as it toured the United States on a mission to raise war bonds.
April 30, 1942, at the Loew’s Capitol Theatre in Washington, D.C., and before her recitation of High Flight, Oberon acknowledged the attendance of his father, John Magee, and brother Christopher Magee.
Jul 1940 - Earned a scholarship to Yale University.
Died 11 Dec 1941, from Collision with Trainer plane piloted by Ernest Audrey Griffin, also aged 19 and son of Ernest Griffin, Vice Consul. US Embassy in London. Age TBC
Note:
Father … John Gillespie Magee (S&B 1906)
Uncle … James McDevitt Magee (S&B 1899)
[1] - Wiki - John Gillespie Magee Jr
[2] - Find a Grave.com - Trainer Pilot killed in the incident with John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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