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.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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