Mary Babnik Brown: Difference between revisions
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Mary Babnik Brown | |
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| File:Mary Babnick Brown poses with Norden bombsight.jpg Mary Brown poses with Norden bombsight | |
| Born | November 22, 1907 |
| Died | August 29, 1991 (aged 83) |
| Occupation(s) | Laborer, labor leader |
| Parent(s) | Frank Wolf Babnik Mary Babnik[1] |
Mary Babnik Brown (1907 - 1991) was an American that made a major contribution to the WW II war effort in helping to make accurate bombsights for US military aircraft. She is notable for her special patriotism and personal sacrifice.
Early life
Brown (maiden name of "Babnik," often misspelled as "Babnick") was born on November 22, 1907 in Pueblo, Colorado.[2] Her parents were Frank and Mary Babnik, immigrants from Slovenia.[2] Her father worked at the railroad and her mother did domestic work for others.[2] Brown’s Slovenian name given to her at birth by her parents was "Mitzi". She Americanized it to Mary, becoming her lifetime name. She was the oldest of the family children and had three younger siblings - a sister (Josephine, born 1908) and two brothers (Frank, born 1910 and Joseph, born 1912). Her early childhood raising was in the Bessemer and Grove neighborhoods of Pueblo. Brown’s father abandoned the family around 1920, leaving her mother to raise her and her siblings.[3]
Brown lied about her age when she was 13 and obtained a job at the National Broom Factory to bring in money for family support.[3] She was paid 75 cents a day in the beginning.[3] Brown made this her lifetime career where she worked for 42 years.[3] She quit elementary school in the 6th grade.[4] Her siblings picked up chunks of coal on railroad tracks that accidently fell from steam engine trains, to help in the family support.[3]
Brown was noted in the local Pueblo area as a renowned dancer in her day. She began dancing as a hobby in her early teenage days. She became proficient at dancing, winning her first dance contest at the age of nineteen. Brown did her dancing at the Arcadia Ball Room (now razed) on Fifth Street in downtown Pueblo. She received the nickname "Arcadia Mary" because she danced there so often. During World War II she taught GIs how to dance. She had a saying: My first love is my family, but dancing is my second.[3]
Mid life
Brown’s notoriety came after she read an advertisement in a Pueblo newspaper in 1943 that the government was looking for hair from women to donate to the war effort.[5] They specified they wanted blonde hair that was at least 22 inches long and had not been treated with chemicals or hot irons.[5] They didn’t say why the human hair was needed and only indicated it was for the war effort in a top secret mission.[6] After sending into the Institute of Technology in Washington, D.C. some samples of her hair, they concluded that her hair would fill the needs for Air Force bombsight crosshairs.[7]
They contacted Brown, labeled by a Denver Post editor "a blond bomber", requesting her hair.[5] Brown's hair was 34 inches long. She had her hair cut and donated it to the war effort. Brown donated her hair in 1944, before she was married. Her last name then being her maiden name of "Babnik". They offered to pay her for her hair in War Savings Stamps, but she refused feeling it was her patriotic duty to help in the war effort.[5]
Brown was traumatized crying for two months after her hair was cut when she gave up her prized possession. It was a very personal item to her, since she had it for 37 years. It had never been cut before. However, a side benefit she received by donating her hair was that she didn’t have to maintain so much hair then (e.g. - twice daily combings, weekly washings, braiding).[8]
Brown's hair was used as crosshairs in the Norden bombsight, a top secret cutting edge precision instrument to accurately guide bombs to their target.[6] The Norden bombsight was used on the B-24 Liberator, B-29 Super Fortress and B-17 Flying Fortress military aircraft.[9] Her hair was the first human hair used as crosshairs in bombsights.[9] The bombardiers used the crosshairs in the bombsights to precisely aim their bombs at enemy targets in Europe and at targets in Japan (i.e. Hiroshima and Nagasaki), which helped conclude World War II.[5]
Brown's blonde hair was unique and shared many of the qualities valued in the black widow spider's web strands that were originally used. The spider’s strands however were to hard to obtain. Her below-knee-length blonde hair was washed only with pure soap and had never been bleached, subjected to a hot iron, or cut in 36 years - making it unique of women's hair. Brown's hair was not only used in bombsights, but also used in scientific equipment to make precise measurements of humidity, an important need for the manufacture of war equipment.[6]
Later life and death
Brown married Carl Brown some time after 1944 and became Mrs Mary "Mitzi" Babnik Brown.[3] She spent her last years of her life in the 300 block of Spring Street in Pueblo.[3]
Awards and honors
- Brown received on November 17, 1990, special recognition in an achievement award from the Colorado Aviation Historical Society in a ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She was inducted into their Hall of Fame.[6]
- Brown became vice president of the State Federation of Labor in 1947 - first woman to have this position.[3]
- Brown received a congratulatory letter about her patriotism from President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1987.
- Paul Harvey on his national broadcast program The Rest of the Story on November 19, 1990, told of Brown and her hair story.[3]
- The city of Pueblo, Colorado, declared November 22, 1991, as "Mary Babnik Brown Day". The formal ceremony of medical personnel at a banquet at the Pueblo Country Club was recorded by NBC-TV. It aired the following month on NBC's The Story Behind the Story.[2]
Politics
Brown was an active member of the Pueblo Democratic party. She was the vice president and president of the Slovenian Lodge SNPJ (Slovenian National Benefit Society).[2]
Footnotes
- ^ 1920 US Census
- ^ a b c d e Pitts, Gail (April 16, 1991). "Pueblo's Mary Babnik Brown dies at 83 in her family home". The Pueblo Chieftain. Pueblo, Colorado: The Pueblo Chieftain.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Smith, John Elvans (2001), Mary Babnik and her hair, Pueblo, Colorado: Pueblo Lore magazine, p. 3-8
- ^ 1940 US Census
- ^ a b c d e Gibney, Jim (July 5, 1987). "Pueblo woman's hair went to war - a blond bomber". The Denver Post. Denver, Colorado: The Denver Post newspaper publishing company.
- ^ a b c d "A.F. LAUDS WOMAN WHO GAVE HAIR". www.deseretnews.com. Desert News newspaper. 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ "Two Puebloans earn Aviation Hall of Fame - p8A". The Chieftain. Pueblo: The Chieftain newspaper. November 11, 1990.
- ^ "Woman helped WWII bombers put enemy in her cross hairs". Google.com/newspapers. Allegheny Times newspaper. 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ a b c Read & Witlieb 1992, p. 71.
- ^ McHugh 2008, p. 18.
Bibliography
- McHugh, Erin (2008). Who? What? When? Where? Why?: A Substantial Gathering of Intriguing & Delightful Knowledge. Reader's Digest Association, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7621-0557-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Read, Phyllis J.; Witlieb, Bernard L. (1992). The Book of Women's Firsts: Breakthrough Achievements of Almost 1,000 American Women. Random House Information Group. ISBN 978-0-679-40975-5.
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