Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Pilots will soon take off from the Moorhead Municipal Airport — Florence Klingensmith Field, thanks to the advocacy of Marisa Bengtson-Loerzel. The Moorhead woman’s admiration of the area’s first female pilot led to both the mural on Main Avenue and the new name. (Photo/Nancy Hanson.)
Pilots will soon take off and land in the shadow of a pioneer Moorhead aviator who was making headlines a century ago … but whose story has only recently been rediscovered.
The Moorhead City Council unanimously approved the Airport Commission’s recommendation to add a phrase to the name of the local airport: Moorhead Municipal Airport – Florence Klingensmith Field.
The campaign to append the aviatrix’s name to the airport was spurred by local activist Marisa Bengston-Loerzel, who has been a fan of Klingensmith since learning of her accomplishments 20 years ago. In recent years, the pilot achieved renewed stature when she was one of five pioneering female flyers featured in the national best-seller Fly Girls.
Bengtson-Loerzel approached the Airport Commission last fall about the change. After receiving what they termed “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from the public, they adopted the recommendation and sent it to the council for approval.
The advocate earlier spurred creation of the Klingensmith mural on Ace Hardware in downtown Moorhead. She told the council she had originally intended the airport naming simply to honor the woman she admires, “but it has become so much more.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate Moorhead’s history, to stimulate interest in the airport, and hopefully to encourage others to follow their dreams.”
The cost of renaming the field is expected to be minimal, involving only a new sign. However, she said she hopes area donors will come forward eventually to fund an informational display about the local heroine.
The new name honors the Moorhead flying pioneer who grew up north of the city and graduated from Moorhead High School in 1918. Inspired by her first plane ride at the Interstate Fair in 1921, just 18 years after the Wright brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, she traded mechanical work at Hector Field for flying lessons. She became the first woman to be licensed as a pilot there in 1929.
Two years later, local businessmen helped finance her own aircraft. She drew crowds across the country as a stunt pilot and air racer, winning a series of women-only races and taking second racing against males. The climax of her career came in 1933, when she competed against male pilots in the International Air Race during the Chicago World’s Fair. She and the airplane she had souped up herself were in third place … when the fabric ripped on its right wing. She was killed in the crash.