Ormer Leslie Locklear
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(October 28, 1891 - August 2, 1920) (grave site 65 feet east) A native of Greenville, Texas, Ormer Leslie Locklear moved to Fort Worth with his family in 1906. He worked for his father's construction company until 1914, when he and his brother opened an automobile repair shop. Locklear enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service in 1917, soon after the U.S. entered World War I. He trained in San Antonio and Austin before being assigned to Barron Field near Fort Worth as a flight instructor. He soon became known for his daring feats of precision flying and performed in barnstorming air shows to recruit pilots for military service. Locklear resigned his Army commission in 1919 to fly in the commercial air show circuit. Hired by the Universal Film Company as a stunt pilot for motion pictures, he moved to Hollywood and in 1920 was killed flying a stunt pilot for his second feature, "The Skywayman". The accident, believed to have been caused when the bright lights illuminating the night sky for filming blinded the pilot, was recorded on film and used in the movie's final scene. Thousands of mourners attended Locklear's Fort Worth funeral, which the Fox Film Corporation filmed and released later as a newsreel. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Fort Worth auto mechanic before the First World War, Ormer Locklear enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service in 1917 and became a flight instructor famous for heart-stopping precision stunts, including walking from wing to wing in midair. He left the Army in 1919 for the barnstorming and Hollywood stunt-flying circuit, thrilling crowds and cameras alike. In 1920 he was killed filming a night dive for "The Skywayman" when studio lights are believed to have blinded him, and the fatal plunge appeared in the finished movie.
Why it matters
Locklear helped invent the American culture of aerial daredevilry and movie stunt flying in the giddy first decades after powered flight.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Ormer Locklear came of age in the first years of powered flight. He was a boy when the Wright brothers first flew in 1903, and airplanes were still rare and fragile when he was a young man working in Fort Worth. Like many mechanically minded young men of the time, he worked with the new technology on the ground first, in his family's construction business and then in an automobile repair shop.
World War I changed everything. When the United States entered the war in 1917, it needed thousands of pilots quickly. Texas, with its open land and mild weather, became a major training ground, and airfields went up around San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth. Young men who had never left the ground were learning to fly within a few months.
When the war ended, the country had a surplus of trained pilots and cheap airplanes. The result was the barnstorming era, when flyers toured fairs and pastures performing stunts and giving rides. Hollywood was growing at the same time and eager for spectacle, and the two worlds met in daredevils like Locklear.
People & events
Locklear was born in Greenville, Texas, and his family moved to Fort Worth in 1906. He worked for his father's construction company, and in 1914 he and his brother opened an auto repair shop. In 1917, soon after the U.S. entered the war, he enlisted in the Army Air Service, trained in San Antonio and Austin, and was sent back near home to Barron Field as a flight instructor.
He quickly became famous for daring precision flying. He is especially remembered for climbing around his aircraft in flight, and even moving between airplanes in midair. The Army used his talent in barnstorming air shows meant to inspire young men to become military pilots. In 1919 he resigned his commission to fly the commercial air show circuit, where crowds would pay to watch the feats that had made him a legend among flyers.
Hollywood soon called. Universal hired him as a stunt pilot, and he moved to California. In 1920, while filming a night sequence for his second feature, The Skywayman, his plane crashed. The bright lights set up to illuminate the night sky for the cameras are believed to have blinded him. The cameras recorded the crash, and the footage was used in the film's final scene. His body came home to Fort Worth, where thousands of mourners attended his funeral, and the Fox Film Corporation filmed it and released it as a newsreel.
Its place in the American story
Locklear's short life traces the path of American aviation from wartime necessity to public spectacle. World War I trained a generation of pilots, and many of them carried those skills into civilian life through barnstorming, which introduced ordinary Americans to the airplane. For many small-town crowds, a stunt flyer at the county fair was their first close look at flight.
He was also a pioneer of the Hollywood stunt pilot. Aerial action became a staple of American film, and its early practitioners worked with almost no safety margin, on camera, for audiences that wanted ever greater thrills. Locklear's death shows the real risks behind that early movie magic, and it led to hard questions about how much danger a performer should take on for a scene.
The filmed funeral and its newsreel release show something else new: the celebrity of the mass-media age. A Fort Worth mechanic had become a national figure through film and the press, and his death became a public event that people far beyond Texas could watch.
If you visit
The marker notes that Locklear's grave lies about 65 feet to its east. Walking that short distance is a quiet, moving way to connect the story to the man. This is a cemetery, so move respectfully and be mindful of other visitors.
As you stand there, think about the scale of his life: a Fort Worth auto mechanic who learned to fly in wartime, astonished crowds by moving around airplanes in flight, and ended up as a Hollywood star. He was not yet twenty-nine when he died.
Fort Worth has a long aviation history, and this marker fits naturally into a trip exploring Texas's role in early military flight. North Texas was one of the places where the airplane went from novelty to national industry in just a few years.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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