Ann Criswell Madden
April 10, 1922 – March 15, 2004
Class: 43-W-6
Training Location: Avenger Field (Sweetwater, Tex.)
Planes flown: BT-13, PT-19, UC-78
Assigned bases:
Long Beach Army Air Base (Calif.)

Ann “Cris” Criswell Madden grew up in Ohio and Maryland. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, where she also earned a pilot’s license.

Ann Criswell graduated in the class of 43-W-6 on 9 Oct 1943. During her time with the WASP she was assigned to Long Beach Army Air Base (CA). In the performance of her duties she flew many types of military aircraft, including the PT-19, BT-13, UC78 and attended Pursuit School to enable her to ferry pursuit aircraft from factories to airfields.

She met her future husband, Paul Madden, an Army Air Corps captain, at a base in California. They were married in 1945 and had 10 children. In 1966, while they were living in Merion, he died in an automobile crash. Fortunately, their daughter Laura Grant said, her father, who owned an insurance company, had sufficient coverage so that Mrs. Madden did not need to work to support her family.

Mrs. Madden encouraged her children to speak in public, her daughter said, and took her own advice. She developed slide lectures on art appreciation and on her travels, and she included her war experiences in a lecture, “These Magnificent Young Women in Their Flying Machines.

She was posthumously awarded a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal for her service in WWII as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Sources:
Findagrave.com
Texas Women’s University, Denton, Texas. WASP collection
Wings Across America

 

 

Share:

More Posts

James Ewing

James Ewing Flt. Officer Class: 44-F-TE Graduation date: 6/27/1944 Unit: 477th Bombardier Group Service # T64271 Arkansas produced two flight officers (F/Os), or navigators, during the height of the Tuskegee era—James Ewing and Denny C.

Read More »

Robert Williams

Robert W. Williams, Jr. September 21, 1922 – September 8, 1997 Class: 44-E-SE 2nd Lt. Graduation date: 5/23/1944 Rank at time of graduation: Unit: 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group Service # 0830797

Read More »

James Randall

James E.P. Randall 1920 – December 9, 2019 The son of a librarian and a railroad worker, Randall grew up during the Great Depression in the segregated schools of Roanoke, VA. When World War II

Read More »

Everett Richardson

Lt. Everett Emerson Richardson April 27th, 1917 – DOD Unit: 477th Bombardment Group Service # 0-713053 From: Philadelphia, PA Lt. Everett Emerson Richardson was a Navigator / Bombardier with the 477th Bombardment Group. He entered

Read More »

Send Us A Message