Interview with Mary Roche:
Katie: Alright I am here on January 4 [2015] with Mary Roche, and we are going to be talking
about the plane crash that happened in Outer Cove in 1956.
Mary: Yeah.
Katie: Do you consent to being recorded?
'Mary nods'
Katie: Yes? Okay.
Mary: Isn't going to hurt me now, is it?
Kenneth: You're okay with these pictures being online?
Mary: Yes, my god, everything is online.
Katie: Okay, so just recount the day as you remember it, of the plane crash.
Mary: I was here in the house doing something, and I had Steve, Martin and Diana [and] Patsy
and I was waiting for Janet, my third daughter to be born. Beautiful day and ...
Katie: So you were pregnant?
Mary: Yes, yeah. And I went, I heard this big bang and I thought the horse was out and Richard's
father, he was right strict. And I thought the kids were after throwing a rock and the horse
bucked up against the house or something. And I went out singing out "God bless it". "Mom, it's
not us, we had nothing to do it. That's ... Look down." And I said "what is it" and he said "there's
a plane." I thought he was joking. He said "Mom, come out 'til you sees." And when I went out
sure enough you could see the smoke coming up. Because I remember my brother, Jack, Mike
Stack and Jack Hickey, they saw the plane crash and they were down on the road. And they
took a dory and they rowed out and tied the body on, they couldn't lift him in out on the water,
lift him into the boat, so they tied him on and dragged him in that way, right to the beach in
Outer Cove.
Katie: Uncle Jack?
Mary: Yeah, that was my brother, Jack, and Mike Stack, and Jack Hickey. And then the police
came and the ambulance I guess and everything, and took ... and yes, they were lucky, the
people in the house that day, because like I sa id in the interview, Mr. Stack had just come
home. He was a security guard up on Buckmaster Circle. He'd walk from Outer Cove to
Buckmaster Circle in the evening; he'd get off work in the morning. And you talk about people
going for a walk today. And then he'd walk home then again in the evening, in the morning;
walk up in the evening, walk home. And he had just gone upstairs to go to bed. And his
daughter, her husband had been drowned with my father in 1951, and they moved in with him
and her (their parents), she moved in with the three kid s. And like kids would, they were
bawling out, singing out, and he heard the bang and he came down thought they were after,
like me, after doing something. And when he did, they looked up and the roof was gone. uOh
my god," he said. He went out in the yard, and stood up, and the roof was gone off the house,
and the plane was just going over the cliff. And so he was lucky, you know, none of them were
hurt or anything, thank God, you know.
Katie: Right.
Mary: So yeah, it was a big day, I' ll tell you that. But that's why lots of people today, that's what
men are told. He said, Mary, he said nobody knows about that, and it's a part of history. It
should be made known.
Katie: Oh definitely, yeah. You said Uncle Jack was one of the ones that went out to get the
body. Do you remember him telling you that story? Can you tell the story the way he might
have told it?
Mary: He came home that evening, came up that day after, and he said they were after towing
the body in and he said he didn't look like he had any injuries or anything, you know, but he
said here we were with a rope tied around the body. And it was a right calm day, even though it
was in January. There was no windy weather. They were lucky, you know, that they got him,
and bought him in. He said it was so frightening; they were only young at the time, but to tow
in a dead body.
Katie: Oh yeah.
Mary: You know. And him and Jack Hickey, the three of them are dead now, and Mike Stack.
And Mike lived the next house up to Mr. Richey; that was his uncle, and Mike lived up now next
to him. They had just been down on the road, you know, kids that lived to the beach were now
(?) they go to Middle Cove, but nobody goes down here, you know?
Katie: Yeah.
Mary: And, oh yeah, he said was kind of ... and as the years went on, as they got older, and he
went away; he was in the navy, and he said how often did he think of it after. "My god" he said,
"we had some nerve that day; get the body, and tie it on, and tow it in."
Katie: Yeah, well it's good, I mean, if they didn't go out and get it right away they probably
never would have recovered the body. It was a really good idea.
Mary: Yeah well that's why that reporter said, you know, he said the family were really, the
family were really, he said, you know, thankful. At least they got the body, you know, because it
would have been gone. I seen there was a body went over the cliff down in flat rock this
morning I heard on the radio there, you know.
Katie: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah, but there's always something my dear.
Katie: Are any ofthe men that recovered the body still alive?
Mary: No.
Katie: None ofthem are alive?
Mary: No. And Robert now, my Robert, wasn't even born. He don't remember nothing about it.
And Robert Stack, that bought the house, after they got the house done up, you know, rebuilt
the house. Robert's nephew, Richard Stack, he was born and got married and lived down in
Portugal Cove, and a few years ago, probably ten or twelve, sold the house in Portugal Cove.
And Mr. Stack's daughter was in Philadelphia, and she sold the house to him.
Katie: Okay.
Mary: So he said he has no memories, he wasn't even born. That's why he sent the fellow [Gary
Hebbard] up to me, you know, said no one knows. I was talking about it, he said go up to Mary,
she'll tell you about it.
Katie: She remembers, yeah. Do you know anyone else that might remember the story, that's
still alive? Like anyone else that may have been here when - because I know everyone went out
and threw water on the fire and stuff - or anyone that might have lived around that
remembered it?
Mary: Yeah well, Mr. Hickey been there but he's dead, and his wife is dead, and his son is dead.
Now Mr. Patty Hickey, but Patty is ninety-three. He said, "Mary I wish I had your memory." I
was talking to him a couple of weeks ago now by the mailbox. He said I can't remember a thing
about it. You know, because of his age. There's lots of them, you know, my memory, thank God,
is good. Donny will want to know something and he'll come down and say, "Mom, such a thing,
I can't remember none of it." And I' ll say, "That's okay, Donny, my memory might go too
someday." Yeah, no, but there'd be nobody around now. The only one now would be Charlie
Power in Logy Bay. Charlie is my age.
Katie: Okay. Did he witness it?
Mary: His wife was in the hospital, when the nurse - and she had a boy that day.
Katie: Oh yeah, I remember reading about that.
Mary: Yeah, and she went in. No telephones then, nobody had a telephone or anything, or a
cell phone, or nothing like today. And she said they [hospital staff] said there was a big accident
in Outer Cove, and she said she didn't know until the next day when her husband - he was a
farmer - when he called and told her, that's what it was. She said you'd have to worry all night
thinking what it was, and you know. But Charlie lives in Logy Bay, and Charlie might be able to ...
now he's sick today. I was talking to him and her this morning, both of them have the flu, 'cause
I was up there the other night, for to get the paper he did, you know.
Katie: Yeah? I guess I can look him up in the phone book?
Mary: I' ll give you his phone number. You can call him someday and I'll tell him too that, you
know, you're going to come. 722-4817. Charlie and Mena, Mary is her name but everyone calls
her Mena.
Katie: Mena Power? Oh yeah, I think she's donated some stuff at the museum.
Mary: Yes, that's right.
Katie: I've seen her name before.
Mary: Yes, yeah.
Katie: You didn't happen to take, I guess, nobody took any pictures of the crash or anything like
that?
Mary: No. I guess nobody had a camera or anything. You know, there was no reporters around
them times or anything.
Katie: Yeah, it's hard to find an article even on what happened. I went down to the archives, I
went to the library and stuff; can't find anything on it.
Mary: No, that's right.
Katie: Because I guess nobody had cameras or anything.
Mary: No my dear, I tell you.
Katie: Yeah so Charlie Power, I will definitely give him a call.
Mary: Give him a call, yeah.
Kenneth : Is he a relation, Charlie Power, to you guys?
Mary: What?
Kenneth: Is he a relation?
Mary: He's a relation to me, yes. We' re cousin s.
Katie: Okay.
Mary: Oh no, but Charlie is great. Charlie is after signing more land fares down here than
anybody else.
Katie: Oh really?
Mary: Yeah, because now you have to have three people to sign a piece of land and say that
was owned by such a person. I did one up there, and my son Donny is after buying land up
there now, he's going building a house, and I had to sign for the people that were selling that,
they were relatives of my husband. And another one out in Logy Bay, out in Deveraux's lane,
where they were selling, and I remember the people I knew who lived there and everything.
And Charlie is after signing on more land deeds my dear than you'd know. Because, you know,
if somebody's in their sixties today, other than that, you got to be sixty or over before you can
sign. You know, so long ago the people owned the land, you know.
Katie: Yeah. Alright well I'm going to shut this off. Thank you very much.
Questions for Mary Roche:
o Please state your name, and date of birth for our records.
o Can you recount the day of the plane crash, exactly as you remember it.
o Do you have any photographs of the crash, or the house after it was destroyed? Do you know
anyone who might have taken pictures?
o Your brother, Jack, was one of the men who recovered the pilot's body from the ocean. Do you
remember him telling you that story? Can you recount it?
o Do you know anyone else who I could contact that witnessed the crash?
o\~ ~ ~ogyc\ Sevy-::
r 2-L - Lf-D I :r
Interviewing Mena and Charlie Power
Interview Conducted by Katie Harvey
Friday, July 10, 2015 at 2:30pm
K: Okay so I am here with Mena and Charlie Power and we' re going to be talking about the
plane crash in Outer Cove. 50 I am going to ask Mena to just tell me what she remembers from
that day, and then I will ask Charlie.
M: Well it was a memorial day for us because that night, early in the morning, rather, I went out
to the hospital. I was expecting a baby, a bit premature; I think it was four weeks premature.
K: How did you get out to the hospital?
M: Uh, truck. Charlie had a pickup truck. And so we went out. Of course there was no snow,
because it was the ninth of January.
K: Okay, that's strange.
M: Yeah. It was early in the morning. Not a blade of snow. Just went with a pair of shoes, right?
Yeah, and it was quite foggy when we were leaving, you could see the sky blowing in then;
about 2 in the morning. Of course, he was born just as I got there.
K: You weren't in labour very long were you?
M: No, no.
K: That's good.
M: I think before Charlie left the hospital yard, St. Claire's it was, the child was born.
K: (laughs) Oh wow.
M: So that was our second boy. I was already after leaving another little guy, not even a year
old. He would have been born on the 11th of January. And he had the whooping cough . So I was
leaving reluctantly because I was worried about him.
K: Yes.
M: And so anyway James was born. This pilot had the same birthday - he died on his birthday.
K: Yes.
M: Yeah. He was 35.
K: And what is your son's name?
M: James.
K: Okay.
M: James, yeah. This is him here.
K: I guess he doesn't remember.
M: Yeah, many years ago. And this is him recently, at the other son's wedding, daughter's
wedding, rather.
C: The guy we left home that night.
M: The guy I left home.
K: Okay.
M: So he says to James now, you gypped me out of my first birthday cake. So that's how I
remember it so vividly, you know because of the ...
K: So you were in the hospital?
M: Yeah, in the hospital. And the next morning I never knew anything about it. Course there
was no phones back then.
K: Right.
M: Back in the 50s. So anyway, here I picked up the newspaper the next morning, someone
threw it in the bed, and it said a plane hit a house, a two-story house, in Outer Cove.
K: Oh my gosh.
M: But nothing could persuade me, this was the old homestead down there. It was (?) there
now. I wasn't worried about Charlie or no one, what happened to Sylvester (my son)?
K: Yeah.
M: So anyway then, it was later then, I got the call. One of the nurses came in and said it was
the Stacks house down by the ocean.
K: Who called, do you know? Do you remember?
M: I forget who called, one ofthe relatives. Probably my sister-in-law.
K: So how long did you not know?
M: Weill suppose it was almost - 'cause Charlie wouldn't get out until . .. 'cause he was
farming at the time. Milking the cows morning and then night so he wouldn't be out until- well
especially now the men will go with their wives and that - but back then he'd come out
probably about 20 hours later, right?
C: I dropped her off at the hospital, brought her in in the wheelchair, came out, had a flat tire in
the car. And only for that, the baby would have been born on the road. Dirt roads at the time,
no pavement.
K: lots of flat tires I would say.
C: It was hectic really, what could have happened, you know?
K: Yeah, I would say.
C: And what's so frightening - mena got such a fright about the plane hitting the house - it flew
in right over our house. (3:46)
K: Oh wow.
M: Yeah, right in over Red Cliff .
• ••• (Chatting about runway being closed at airport currently)
C: What frightened Mena was it was a two-story house in Outer Cove, because see there a barn
and house, two-story house, down there, see. She thought the plane took the house.
K: God, I can only imagine the worry.
M: Oh my dear. We had one phone here then, in logy Bay. CN, is that your cousin, Willie
Power?
C: Yeah.
M: lived up the road there, and he worked with CN. And they installed the phone in their
home. So then when you wanted to make a phone call you had to go to Mr. Power's.
K: Yeah, wow.
M: And there was no pavement or anything back then. You' re talking about '55.
C: Big change in everything since then.
K: Oh definitely, yeah . So you guys lived in a different house when this happened, is that
correct?
M: Yeah, the old homestead there, we have a garage made from it.
C: (?) Old square house.
M: Charlie is one of ten.
C: I'm one of ten .
M: Youngest boy.
K: Wow, that's a lot of kids.
M: Yeah.
K: So was the old house very close to where the crash was?
M: No, we're here and Outer Cove is down there, right down by Mary's.
K: Oh okay.
M: Now that lady that owned the house was my father's aunt. She was a Burke. My
grandmother, Roche, she married my grandfather and that was her sister, married Mr. Stack. So
yeah, that was my great aunt.
K: Okay, and the person that lives there now, I'm lead to believe, is a relative of the Stacks?
M: Yeah, he is Mike Stack's grandson? Great-grandson?
C: Mike's son lives there.
M: Yeah , that's the grandson ofthe man who owned it, Mr. Richey.
C: No, no, Mike's father was Mickey.
M: Oh right. It's just a relative.
K: Okay.
**** (Continue talking about relation to Richard Stack)
K: So when he [Richard Stack] was living in the house - he was married to your great aunt? And
then I guess they had kids. Do you guys know if any of them are still around?
M: This lady here, this is my aunt, and this is mister who owned it, and this is his daughter,
Annie. She's dead now as well. She was married to a Doran and he got drowned in Outer Cove.
These are her children; that's Johnny Doran, he's still alive in Toronto I think.
C: Johnny's dead.
M: He died? Well Monica is still alive.
C: She's the only one left.
M: That's Mrs. and Mr. Stack's daughter, Annie, and this is her sister, Rita. Now she's dead as
well.
K: And that's Rita's daughter?
M: No, Rita never married. This is Annie, that's her son, Johnny and her daughter, Monica.
K: Okay and Monica is ...
M: She's in Toronto. She went away.
C: She's the only one living in the family now.
M: Yeah, there was three ofthem. There was Tommy, he died.
K: Do you know what her last name is? Did she marry?
M: Monica? She was married to ... a Butt. He died.
C: Did he?
K: Okay. Well I'll definitely try and get in touch with her.
M: But how close you know. If the plane had to hit front-on, it would have killed them all. They
were in the kitchen. It hit the other side of the house, and that's how they were saved.
C: Mister just come out of bed.
M: Yeah, he was resting and he got up and went down over the stairs - this is the rumour. And
he said "Who called me up?" They were there with the children "Shhh, poppy's asleep." And his
wife said "No one called you, we're here whispering, so you can get your rest." And he shuffled
out the door. He was just to the beach when he looked up, it was foggy, and they said the plane
is after hitting the house, and he just went white.
K: So no one called him but he heard someone call him? So crazy.
M: So crazy, yeah. You can imagine Aunt Kitty, now you don't know her, but she's so quiet. If he
was resting, everyone "shhhh" because he had to work. That's when they used to walk to work.
K: Yeah he used to work in Buckmaster Circle.
M: Buckmaster Circle, yeah . He was a watchmen, yeah.
K: Back and forth every day, my God. Must have taken him hours. Even to drive, that's like a 20
minute drive.
C: That's right yeah. That's when men were made of steal.
K: (laughs) Yeah, they worked all day long. Walked for four hours.
M: And he [Col. Payne] was only, what was it, two and a half minutes in the air.
K: Yeah, they think that he was kind of disoriented because it was so foggy.
M: Yeah because he was an ace, you know.
K: Yeah, he had all kinds of medals.
M: Yeah, Col. Payne.
C: You see here, Annie Stack, now she, her husband was drowned with your [great]
grandfather, Stephen Power.
K: Okay.
M: Mary's [Roche] father. You're great-grandfather.
K: Yeah Mary mentioned that.
M: And she was pregnant, and her two sisters were pregnant. And the three of them had three
boys. Everyone called their son - because his name was, Tom, Thomas Doran - and they called
them Tom.
K: And they were just fishing?
C: Yeah.
M: There was three of them, pregnant at the time. There was Stephen ...
C: Your great-grandfather, and Tom Doran and Mike Kinsella and Rich.
M: Mike and Rich were with them, but they survived. They were really good swimmers.
K: $0 I guess the boat just went down? Was it just rough waters?
C: The boat turned over.
M: That was 50 odd years ago.
K: That's amazing.
M: Must have been 1950s.
K: Well the crash was '56 and it happened before that.
M: Yeah. It's tragic.
K: Yeah I can't even imagine. They left so many people behind.
M: But they were lucky, if she were to have gone down like this, no one would have survived.
(talking about plane crash now)
K: Well yeah, everyone survived. And the fact that he was up in the room and then came down .
M: And I think they were saying that they never found the bed.
K: Yeah I saw that, my gosh.
M: But it was the first tragedy then . The airport was 14 years old, and it was the first crash.
C: It was the last one too.
M: Then there was that guy from Torbay.
C: Oh yes, yeah, yeah. I think he was Manny.
M: Manny, yeah. He went out the other way, to Goosebay. About 20 years ago.
C: Hit a (ridge?), no one could survive that .
••• (Inaudible chatter between Charlie and Mena)
C: Joey Smallwood was supposed to be on 'er, but he wasn't there.
M: Lucky Joey.
C: He was premiere at the time, yeah . He was lucky.
M: But yeah, he was top of the line pilot.
K: I actually spent a bit of time with the gentleman who wrote this article (referring to Gary
Hebbard's article in the telegram) and what he said was - because he knows about planes, and I
don't know anything about planes - and he said basically when you can't see, you have to rely
completely on your gears and the readings you are getting. And when you are doing that you
can feel like you are upside down, it's very disorienting. And since it happened so quickly they
think that he got up there, was completely disoriented and then he crashed.
c: He wasn't supposed to go though, was he?
K: No, he apparently kept badgering his commander, and he ended up saying yes, which is
terrible. Neither one of them should have been doing that.
M: They were both reprimanded. Well he wanted to get there, he was going to a meeting. And
you know, here he was after being in the war, and after taking down six German planes.
K: Makes you think, doesn't it, what we will do.
M: He was courageous.
K: Yeah, definitely. It's so lucky that he didn't hurt anyone else.
M: He could have wiped out ...
c: The whole family.
K: I mean he could have hit Mary's house too, and then gone into the other house. Did you hear
that he knocked the chimney off of Mary's house? That's something that I heard.
M: I don't know.
K: Okay, that's just something I heard. I'll have to ask Mary about it.
c: Mary's father-in-law; it would have been him.
M: Yeah, because he was closer. Mr. Roche.
K: Okay. So it caught fire, and everyone I guess went out and started putting it out? Is that what
happened?
M: Yes, they came with buckets of water. There was no fire department or anything. And that's
how they put it out. And because they were in the kitchen, that was the only place ... because
he must have hit the other corner, say the kitchen is on this side like in the old house, must
have just took the corner on the left, or the right.
c: And the house, there was no electricity, so the candles started fires all the time.
M: Yeah. Because even mister, when they built the home for him, he didn't want electricity.
Just wanted his carrison lamp and his wood stove.
K: Yeah when they rebuilt it. They only built one storey after.
M: Yeah they put the one storey.
K: That's for good luck. So Charlie why don't you tell me what you remember from that day too,
just from your perspective? Just start from the beginning.
C: Well like I said, I drove Mena to the hospital. I was worried. I got the flat tire. James was
always coming somewhere in a hurry. He's always in a hurry, he's always early. But anyway,
what happened, I was lucky, I was happy. At the time there was no pavement, it was dirt roads.
And the old tires, all tubes in tires at that time, you know tubeless tires at that time. If you had
a flat tire, you went down. No such thing as tubes in your tire at that time. We got the flat tire
just as we got to the hospital.
K: And then I guess you changed it and all that? Then did you come back out [to Outer Cove]?
C: I came back home then.
M: And then what did you do? You killed two pigs.
C: Well, yes I did. I did farm work.
M: He slaughtered pigs.
C: We raised 20 pigs that year, so I slaughtered two that day.
K: The day of the crash?
C: The day of the crash. The day after the crash I slaughtered two pigs for Foster's Meat Market.
They used to buy them for pork, you know?
K: Okay.
C: So that's what I remember about it all.
K: Okay, so you guys were actually at the hospital the day that it happened then? And you came
back the next day?
M: That's right, yeah. We went to the hospital that night, and it happened around 3.
K: In the morning?
M: No, 3 in the afternoon. Because a friend of mine, she taught at the school up here, St.
Francis. And she was walking down over the hill, (Brian's Hill?) we call it, coming this way. And
she boarded out here by the animal hospital, and she walking home, and she said she'd never
forget how foggy it was, thick, thick fog. She said you couldn't hardly see where you were
putting your foot. And she heard the rumbling around 3 in the afternoon. And she said, the
rumbling, no good looking, you couldn't see. And after she got home, she heard a plane was
after hitting the Stack house in Outer Cove.
*** (Charlie and Mena talking at the same time, inaudible)
K: So the fog was so thick you couldn't even see?
M: So thick. Charlie remembers.
C: Oh yes!
M: And it was January, and there wasn't any snow.
C: That's what was so strange about it. January, no snow.
K: Yeah that is strange. Because usually there is 20 feet of snow.
M: Because, you know, I remember I was rushed off, and I just put my bare feet into a pair of
slippers.
K: Was it cold?
M: No, no. Not even cold.
K: That's so eerie.
M: For that time of year, yeah . But it was a good winter. The winter before that, because
Sylvester was born January, the year prior to that, he was born on the 11th of January, and
James was born on the 9th the next year. But that was a real bad winter, even getting out to the
hospital.
K: And then the flat tire (laughs). Of course that would happen like that, funny.
M: Yeah . The child was born just as we got there. The child was born, and we were right up
here, and where the parking area was down here, I could see the truck leaving. And he had to
come back had he known he had another boy. The child was born just as I got there.
C: No man was in holding his wife's hand at that time.
M: We didn't need ye at all then .
K: You weren't in the room or anything?
C: No, no.
M: And he wouldn't, even if he was allowed.
C: That's a place for doctors and nurses.
K: Yeah I guess it's only recently that the men will go in with the women .
••• (Mena and Charlie start talking about their family)
Dave Hickey:
• He was working in Stephenville at the time so he did not witness the crash, although he
heard many stories about it
• He says there is a mistake in The Telegram article written by Gary Hebbard on the crash;
he said the three men who brought the body in were Billy Hickey, Tom O'Rourke and
Eenis Hickey
• He also said the chimney of Mary Roche's house was knocked off by the plane before it
hit the Stack house
Michael O'Rourke (as told by Robert):
• He saw the plane go down and began running towards the priest's house, which was the
closest phone to him (not many phones in the community at the time)
• Dave Hickey ran into Mike and he was able to get to the priest's house quicker, so Mike
headed down to the beach and met the boat coming in that was towing the pilot's body
• Three men that were in the boat: Tom O'Rourke (he held the body over the boat), Jack
Power and Mike Stack (rowed the boat)
• The pilot was strapped in his seat (he most likely tried to eject himself), and his head
was "bashed in; it was very gory, like a movie"
• The Stacks were asked by the military to collect parts of the plane that washed up on
the beach. The military came back and paid them all $25.00 for helping them
Potential Interviewees for Plane Crash Exhibit:
• Mary Roche, Outer Cove - 437-5845 ~} )-},~ "* tlo • John Carroll, Outer Cove - 437-5557 - -- !> - ~ Gz...- . . ~
}1~ *~ . ~y ed Ag~ickey, lower Rd Outer Cove - 437-5522 --* ""-'-<-~..) \'7 ~j"
~'" • Tom Hickey, St. John's - ~<b-.t
*~ . Charlie and M(:m;l~ower, logy Bay -722-4817 ~ .:ijY,......J?- y:<,OK... ;: \()C.J2. ---....
U- - -- - l' M"'"' f(,p~ Y"t,..(.~
y: NO . Michael O'Rourke, Outer Cove -437-6604 :> r--~~ ?
J(f> . J~es Hickey, logy Bay - 753-5803 . ' >- *""""- '!(..
~ ~. ~e Hickey, Outer Cove - 437-5579~f 5 ?RU?>
~lh-./-~ ~:
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Outer Cove Plane Crash
Potential interviewees (called on June 16th, 2015:
Mary Roche
John Carroll
Paddy Hickey
Mena Power
Charlie Power
Michael O'Rourke
James Hickey
Dave Hickey
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- no, too hard of hearing and memory not so good.
-possible yes, spoke with a woman and left message, he will call (follow
up if no call).
-yes (!), spoke with her and she is interested. Husband Charlie also likely.
She is a great storyteller, began to tell me immediately that her son was
born on the same day as the crash, and the pilot's birthday was that day
too.
"Terrible at the time" ... She was in the hospital and heard the news, and
was worried that it was her house that was hit. You can call her, but she
and Charlie are sick with the flu so please call the week of June 25th
•
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-no, he is too ill at present to take part.
-yes, he sounds elderly, but he is interested. You can call him to set up a
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Speech for Exhibit Launch: Sat, Sept 5
For those of you who have never been here before; welcome to the Logy Bay-Middle CoveOuter
Cove Museum. Thank you all for coming today as we launch our new exhibit: The
Mysterious Outer Cove Plane Crash. I spent the majority of the summer working on this project,
and I'm so happy that you could all be here today to see the final result.
I'd like to thank the International Plastic Modellers Society (Tony Bowdring & Joe) for building
this beautiful model plane. I'd also like to thank my informants, Mary Roche, Charlie and Mena
Power, for taking the time to share their stories, and Gary Hebbard, who helped me all along the
way, and inspired this exhibit with his article in the Telegram. Finally, I'd like to say thank you
to my father, Kenneth Harvey, who took all the photos for the exhibit, and my mother, who
helped me with design and painting.
There is cake, tea and coffee in the kitchen, please help yourself. We are also selling tickets on
this lovely gift basket in support of the museum. Tickets are $2.00 each, or 3 for $5.00. Thank
you to our donors, The Historic Sites Association, The Newfoundland Chocolate Company, The
Georgestown Cafe and Bookshelf, and Black Creek Pottery. We will draw the winner at 4:00pm.
There is a binder here, and I encourage you to write down your own memories or thoughts from
the day of the plane crash. Enjoy, and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to come
and talk to me.
