MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF WELL-KNOWN AVIATOR MANILA DAVIS TALLEY, FIRST WOMAN FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA TO OBTAIN A COMMERCIAL PILOT'S LICENSE, RECORDING HER TIME IN YAKUTAT, ALASKA IN 1940-1941. Accompanied by a group of photographs, correspondence with family and friends, draft copies of ideas for stories and plays, membership and business cards, and miscellaneous printed material by TALLEY, Manila Davis (1898-1973) - 1962

Yakutat, AK; Flatwoods, WV; New York City; Brasilia; etc., 1962. A collection of nearly 160 items, including Manila Talley's manuscript diary, 22 cm., stitched sheets on lined paper, some 30 pages of penciled entries, approx. 7000 words, from December 13, 1940 - January 13, 1941. Also included are about 23 letters from her husband Benjamin B. Talley (1903-1998), an engineer, designer of numerous airfields in Alaska, and a Brigadier General during World War II who helped plan the D-Day beach assault in Normandy; 50 letters from family and friends; nearly 70 photographs (many candid shots; some studio portraits); approx. 6 printed items, including typescripts related to an organizational meeting of the Betsy Ross Corps, a reproduced typescript defining the mission of the women's aviation group the Ninety-Nines, an Activity Report for the New York Wing Civil Air Patrol, etc.; and some one dozen drafts of stories or plays Manila Talley was working on at various times, expanding her career as a pilot to include her experiments in writing autobiography and literature. Manila Davis was born in Flatwoods, West Virginia. She attended West Virginia University before transferring to the New England Conservatory to study music and drama. While there she became interested in aviation, taking a Curtiss-Wright course in mechanics and attending the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at MIT. From there she became a salesperson for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and learned to fly. She obtained her commercial pilot's license in the early 1930s; was a founding member of the Betsy Ross Corps, a female auxiliary/reserve for the Army Air Corps; an early member of the Ninety-Nines, an international association of female pilots; joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1941, and was the third woman to go through the Air Force War College in December 1966. Her first husband died in 1930 and she married Benjamin B. Talley in 1933. They were together, all over the world, until her death in 1973.
Talley's first entry in her Yakutat diary on December 13, 1940 mentions that her husband BB had told her he was being transferred to Anchorage and that "the job will put him in charge of all the air bases being constructed in Alaska except Annette which is near Seattle. I don't desire the honor that goes with it, for it will mean that we never have any time together to enjoy ourselves again as long as it lasts- he will travel- mostly by plane and I'll be alone.... Oh well, such is army life- here today and gone tomorrow...."
She also records his struggles to get the proper supplies and manpower to Yakutat while in charge of construction for Elmendorf Air Force Base. Instead of filling his order for three 20-ton tractors they sent him 3 little farm vanity tractors. Looking at them in disgust, she says he turned to one of his soldiers and said " 'If I catch you wearing one for a watch charm it will go hard with you.' To me he said 'I'll tie a line and buoy to one in the morning start it down the field and take a picture as it sinks out of sight' - he was so mad he nearly died when he saw them...." The skilled labor they sent him were likewise threatening to strike before they ever saw the field. He told them if they refused to work they would have to find their own way back to the States. To solve his labor shortage, BB asked permission to hire Natives who were all anxious to work for him.
Knowing they were being transferred, Manila suggested she leave early to take a flying course but he did not believe a wife should be in one place while a husband was in another: "Seems ok for him to be away and leave me alone in Anchorage- different for me to be gone a couple of months- but I want to see Dad- the army boat would take me down- and I would of course have to pay my way back- but I want to go so much. However, I might just as well have un-loaded 3 more little tractors as to have spring that idea this morning."
In the meantime, she was asked by the Natives to play the piano in their Christmas celebration at the Alaskan Native Brotherhood Hall- the only white woman asked to participate. She describes the play the Native children put on. She also records the tragic deaths in the village since mid-September, 2 drowned, 1 murdered, 1 from the D.T.s from home-made liquor, and 2 from TB, with no new births to offset the losses.
She records that several of the Native villagers brought her Christmas gifts of moccasins, nine pairs so far. She also mentions that wolf packs have been seen in the area near the village and that the soldiers should be told to be on alert as they are in the habit of walking out alone at night unarmed. "Some night a hungry pack will make a tasty meal of a couple of them."
Her packing finished, Manila boards the "Kvichak," back to the States on January 4, the only woman on board. BB had left on a coast guard boat. Her freighter stops along the way to pick up other passengers and goods, including other women and children. They arrived at Tamgas on Jan. 9 where a Col. [George J.] Nold gave her a tour of the construction of the air base. The buildings were up but not the hospital, or even a road to the air field. She was surprised they were building two docks [this became Annette Air Station]. She continued her rough passage back to the States: "I keep thinking after all the flying I've done, to go down on an old tub out in the Straights of Georgia [was] rather an inglorious end for one Manila." She arrived safely in Seattle on January 14, 1941.
By the end of the year, the United States had entered the war. Manila and BB spent time apart while he was assigned to various places in Alaska and Europe supervising engineering projects for the Army. Included in this group of letters from him is one from Pusan just after the conclusion of the war with Japan, dated Sept. 18, 1945. In it he describes the Pusan harbor which could accommodate as many as 15 Liberty ships, such a change to unload at an actual port after "so many beaches." He also witnesses the steady stream of refugees down from the north "on their way from Japan and across the channel come the Koreans who have been in Japan, another migration of peoples uprooted by war... and I've seen so many." A very detailed, closely written, 4 page letter.
After retirement from the Army, BB worked for Raymond International and supervised construction of buildings in Brasilia, Brazil's new capitol. Most of her correspondence back and forth with BB in this collection relates to his time in Brazil in the late 1950s, where she sometimes joined him. She writes to her family at home from Rio about her attempts to get a license to fly down there: "There are no women flying in Rio. I hear we have one 99 in Sao Paulo but she may be a pilot from elsewhere. I'll find out. She is an old timer." Other letters are from Italy, New York City, Boston, Addis Ababa, etc.
There is also a small group of 6 letters from a Native American woman in Carnegie, Oklahoma to Manila Talley, from 1938 and 1940, mentioning her schooling, her interest in selling some of her crafts, her knowledge of Kiowa songs, etc. BB Talley was born in Greer, Oklahoma and he and Manila traveled back there on occasion.
Other items include: 1) Minutes of Organization Meeting of Betsy Ross Corps, Held on Dec. 30, 1930 at home of Mrs. Opal Kunz, New York City. A 3 pp. reproduced typescript, stating the intended purpose of the organization; 2) Program of the First Meeting and Flag Presentations of the Betsy Ross Corps, Memorial Continental Hall, DAR Bldg., Washington, DC: May 9, 1931; 3) Activity Report New York Wing Civil Air Patrol. Stapled pamphlet. 11 in., 24 pp. [no date]; 4) [on letterhead of the Ninety-Nines, Oklahoma City, OK] a reproduced typescript form letter including the mission statement of the group, and a note about Manila Talley's 1957-58 membership card [not present here]; 5) A reproduced form letter in French, from Casablanca, dated March 16, 1956 from the family of Touria Chaoui, Morocco's first female pilot, informing "Cher Amis" that enemies of Morocco has assassinated her; 6) a photo (3 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.) of a young Manila Talley in helmet and goggles in the cockpit of an aircraft; 7) a 1956 group snapshot (3 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.) of the graduates of the US Army Air Corps First Aid School at Altus A Corps Base, including Manila Talley; and numerous other items.