On Sept. 20, 1929, the first airport in the Palm Beach area was officially recognized when the federal government approved a beacon and landing marker for Lightbown Municipal Airport. The airport, named for Palm Beach Mayor Cooper Lightbown, was established by the Greater Palm Beach Airport Association and the Junior Chamber of Commerce on a 440-acre tract on Belvedere Road. In 1936 the airport we now know as Palm Beach International began commercial service and was renamed Morrison Field.
This photo of a Ford tri-motor passenger plane was taken in 1929. From Post Time reader James P. Sikes who submitted the photo: The plane was the “747 of its day. Note the huge wingspan. The event was a plane ride over West Palm Beach for the employees of the West Palm Beach Water Co., shown standing with the plane along with company trucks prior to take-off in West Palm Beach. My father is the man in the middle back row, wearing the bow tie. His name, James Sikes.”
Coincidentally, Charles Lindbergh flew over West Palm Beach on his way to Miami the day before Lightbown Municipal Airport got its federal certification,
The Palm Beach Post story says “Col. and Mrs. Lindbergh passed over West Palm Beach at 12:52 Thursday afternoon, flying very high, and somewhat west of the city. His plane was moving at a rapid rate of speed.”
On Sept. 12, 1980, a chartered commuter plane on a gambling junket from West Palm Beach to Freeport, Grand Bahama, crashed into the ocean, killing all 34 aboard in the worst air disaster on a flight into or out of Palm Beach International Airport.
Four uniformed Wackenhut employees screened Christmas travelers at Palm Beach International Airport, sifting through bags by hand and unwrapping Christmas gifts. Note the sign advertising $39 flights to Atlanta.
To read the Dec. 26, 1972, Palm Beach Post story below, click on the download, print or fullscreen links, or use the controls at the bottom of the page to zoom in for a better view.
On Dec. 19, 1936, the new West Palm Beach airport — “one of the best in the entire south” — was dedicated. The airport was named Morrison Field in honor of Grace K. Morrison, a licensed pilot and solo flier who was Palm Beach architect Maurice Fatio’s secretary.
For the last three weeks, we’ve revisited Morrison Field, now Palm Beach International Airport, while it was a World War II Army base. Our time machine: a dozen weekly base news magazines loaned to us by retired Lantana teacher Ed Sheedy.
On page 7 of the Oct. 4, 1941 edition: a feature on “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy Morton Savar.”
The story said the red-haired kid was the most unpopular guy on base, because it was he who roused everyone each morning.
“It’s just another job, like muck detail, or KP,” he told the reporter. But during taps, he said, “the temptation to jive is almost unbearable sometimes.”
The 1941 story gave Morton, now 90, a laugh when we tracked him down in Mt. Laurel, N.J..
“A year later, the same guy’s now the most popular because he’s the photographer,” he recalled in August.
Morton would avoid combat the entire war and return to the Philadelphia area, where he spent decades as an event photographer, retiring around 1990; “I was too old to chase the Bar Mitzvah boys and the brides.”
He’s married 60-plus years with three kids and three grandkids.
The youngster had enlisted May 27, 1941, his 21st birthday.
As Morrison’s bugler for six months, he was no novice; as a teen he’d played with a 6-piece band that worked Philly hotels.
After Pearl Harbor, his bugle was replaced by a public address system and he was assigned as an official base photographer, a job he held at Morrison for four years.
“They came to Morrison Field to get all fitted out with the shots, clothing and orientation. It was a very busy airport.”
Late in the war, Savar was shipped to the South Pacific, again as an official photographer.
He said he got a shot of a Japanese envoy leaving Manila for Tokyo Harbor to take part in the surrender aboard the Missouri.
Thanks to Ed Sheedy, both Morton and you now can read every page of the dozen 1941 Morrison Field news magazines here on www.HistoricPalmBeach.com.
The cover photos alone are worth the look; from sleek prop planes ready for takeoff to “cheesecake shots” of local girls — maybe your grandmom — splashing in the surf !
