Around Cass County

LEFT: It has now been almost 100 years ago that Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta. (1892-1926), but she is remembered as if it were yesterday. Perhaps it is because a model of her airplane along with stories, pictures and clothes of her career is in the Atlanta Museum. Atlanta's award winning library also has the new Bessie Coleman Barbie Doll on display as well as a delightful biography of the flying princess by Doris L. Rich for check-out. With this display, and in other ways in Atlanta, Bessie Coleman is celebrated especially during Black History Month.

ABOVE: The late Jack Thompson of Atlanta built this model of Bessie Coleman's airplane for the town's museum. Thompson created most of the stuff about the airplane, too. "Stuff" is the right word here, for Thompson's artistic objects of history are made of "stuff.' They aren't the real things. The Bessie Coleman airplane isn't real. It's a two-third size replica made from all kinds of junk yard cans and pipes. But it looks real and most visitors think it is. The canvas, wires , pulleys and light wood frame are real. The wheels turn, the wing flaps. It acts real. But it isn't. The memories of Bessie Coleman are real, however.

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