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Atica Observer-Dispatch
Thursday, January 16, 1969 -- Page 15
The Regional Sce

First Woman Pilot Still Seeks Kicks
By Shirley Williams

  Blanche Stuart Scott, America's first woman pilot to fly solo, relived the early days of aviation last night before a dinner meeting of the Zonta Club of Utica in Ventura's Restaurant.

  Mrs. Scott, a native of Rochester, told of her first flight and her association with pioneer aviator, Glenn Curtiss, and the Wright brothers at Zonta's annual Amelia Earhart scholarship dinner. Miss Isabelle Angelini was chairman.

  Her first flight, under contract with her instructor Glenn Curtiss, as in Hommondsport, home of the recently constructed Curtiss Museum, which Mrs. Scott was instrumental in organizing.d

  "Planes in those days were built like kites...canvas and piano wire," Mrs. Scott said. "Sixty-five per cent didn't make the grade, you know."

  "There was no such thing as a cockpit...open or otherwise," she said.  "You just sat up front in what we called the undertaker's chair. The motor was in back and if you stopped fast, it just smashed you in the head and that was it."
  "If I were born in this generation, I'd probably be a delinquent," she said. "We looked for kicks and that's what we got. But, we did things that were constructive."
  She recalled talking to a friend of the Wright brothers and asking how many models they had built, "Four...no more. They've reached the ultimate," she was told.
  "I often wonder what Orville would say if he could see today's jets," Mrs. Scott said. 
  While she credited the Wrights with getting aircraft off the ground, her loyalty went out to Glenn Curtiss. "After all, he did invent the ailerons and the flying boat," the aviatrix said. She felt that Curtiss did much more for the progress of aviation than the Wright brothers.
  Counteracting her claim that Curtiss was a man without humor, she told of the time he was approached by a prominent society woman who said she knew much about aviation but had one question unanswered.
  "If one has trouble up there in the air, how does one come down," she asked.
  "Well, we're still in the experimental stages of aviation," Curtiss explained. "Now, we've had a man up there for three days and there is some concern of his starving to death if we don't get him down."
  Mrs. Scott, whose mother was a resident of Newport, as also the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States.
  "Sure, men had done it and all they did was complain," she said. "I told the car manufacturer that this was no way to sell automobiles and convinced him that a woman should do it to show how simple it was." They bought her idea [?]

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"Planes in those days were built like kites..."
[[Photo]]
"I often wonder what Orville would say..."
[[Photo]]
[[?]]

In Union-Fern Legal [?]
Card Draw Illegal, [?]
By William Lohden
  Drawing a lucky card will no longer be allowed to determine the purchaser of delinquent tax property at a city auction.
  Supreme Court Justice J. Robert Lynch has ruled the practice illegal in deciding against the city in its battle to retain title to the former Union-Fern building, 77-83 Genesee St.
  The city took title to the property for $24,529 after its Syracuse owners, Rocco Vivenzio and Edward F. Butler, failed to pay back taxes.
  City Treasurer Lou Barile said today that the city has never been a party to the card-cutting procedure. Instead, he said, it was a practice of bidders to cut cards so that one could not bid against the other.
  In the Union-Fern case, the owners, who also owned the Hotel Hamilton, claimed they had been told by the city that they could delay paying the back taxes until they received payment for the hotel, which the city took for the Boston Store parking garage.
  The payment for the hotel is still being contested in Supreme Court. The property was taken by condemnation.
  Vivenzio and Butler bought the Union-Fern property in 1962 for $39,500, according to the city.
  After the owners sought to reclaim title to the property, its value zoomed, because the state announced it was going to take the property as part of a Baggs Square highway construction project.
  The state put a value of "approximately $500,000" on the property, and the city claimed this was the reason for the owners wanting it back.
  The former owners went to court to reclaim the property, and Justice Lynch ruled in their favor, stating that the city's auction procedure was not a legal auction and that the former owners had not been duly notified of the city takeover.
  Under the auction procedure, [?]

Man, Wife Testify in Zampa Trial
By Ed Ruffing
  A 22-year-old West Utican and his wife were the first witnesses called today by the prosecution in the second-degree manslaughter trial of Egisto Zampa, 65, in Oneida County Court.
  James R. Schuff, of 1203 Parker St., and his wife, Diane, 20, a cousin of David Lynch, 21, of 1105 City St., who as killed July 5, were called to the stand by Dist Atty. Arthur A. Darrigrand.
  The third-day proceedings started at 10:50 a. m.
  Schuff was questioned by Darrigrand for 15 minutes before Asst. Public Defender Francis Finnegan cross-ecamined Schuff for five minutes.
  Mrs. Schuff then took the stand.
  Schuff, who said he was employed at Special Metals, said he had known Lynch for  "a little over a year." Schuff testified that he had been in Liz's Restaurant, Whitesboro [?]

CD Vacacy To Rogenka?
  Mayor Assaro will appoint Frank Rogenka, a funeral director like himself, as the city's civil defense director, a reliable source said today.

[[Photo]]
Frank Rogenka

  Rogenka operates the Rogenka Funeral Chapel, 607 Varick St., where he resides.
  The director's post, which pays $6,000 a year, has been vacant since the death of James Carroll last June.
  In the interim, CD has been run by Deputy Directors James Tozza, 615 Utica Rd., and Nance Robert Ferenti, 1644 Miller St.
  Tozza works full-time and gets $4,500 a year. Ferenti works part time and gets $1,200 a year. Both have passed the Civil Service tests for the position, but only Tozza has a permanent appointment.
  Rogenka ran twice for Common Council president. In 1961, as a running mate of mayoral candidate Alfred Mirante, he lost the Democratic primary to Peter Paravati, who lost in the general election to Republican John S. Flemma.
  In 1965, Rogenka lost in the general election to Republican Bruce Hapanowicz.
  In 1967, Rogenka withdrew as a Democratic candidate for Oneida County coroner, after having been endorsed by the County Democratic Organization.[?]

Thomas Freed On Bail: Case [?]
 




  

 





   


Transcription Notes:
Unable to read last line in first column. Unable to read caption under picture in second column. Unable to finish article titled Card Draw Illegal. Unable to finish article titled Man, Wife Testify in Zampa Trial. Unable to finish article titled CD Vacancy to Rogenka? Unable to complete article titled Thomas Freed on Bail: Case