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Unleashing the monster “I started playing around with photography with my parents,” she said. “We’d cover all the windows with blankets and make contact prints. Later, when I was married, I had my own darkroom; I’d make photos of the kids, make Christmas cards, things like that. “My husband and I were 21 and 18 when we got married,” she continued. “He was in the U.S. Air Force, so most of our kids were born in different states. Then, in 1958, we bought a house in Muskegon, and I’ve lived here most of my married life.” During those years, Beaver was busy raising five children. Photography remained a hobby. Once the children were grown, however, she began looking for a way to turn her love of photography into something more. ‘I started spotting photos for a studio,” she said. “I retouched negatives, then I started doing that out of the house. My husband was an old-fashioned guy who believed in supporting the family, so I saved all the money I made from my business. It was really thriving at the time!” Those resources opened an unexpected door. In the early 1980s, Beaver attended a spiritual retreat in the American West. After a powerful experience there, she flew home on a commercial jet—and had an epiphany. “I was looking out the windows, and everything was just so beautiful,” she recalled. “I had tears running down my face. When I told my husband about it, he said, ‘Why don’t you learn how to fly?’ He didn’t know what kind of monster he was unleashing!” The money from Beaver’s negative-retouching business PHOTOS COurTESy Of MArGE BEAvEr
paid for her flying lessons. At first, she said, she thought she’d learn just enough to fly solo. “Suuuuure,” she said, laughing. “Next, I got my pilot’s license. Then I joined a flying club to make flying more affordable. I continued on in rapid succession to obtain my instrument and commercial ratings.” That was 1982. And things continued to move quickly.
Marge beaver has owned her 1972 Cessna Cardinal for more than 25 years, and she’s logged more than 7,000 flying hours on her thus far.
Removing the roadblocks “My son-in-law’s company had a plant fire, so I took some images from one of the club’s planes,” she said. “He showed them to his boss, who ordered 120 prints! He also wanted to hire me to shoot reconstruction on a monthly basis. I was absolutely thrilled.” Then, a roadblock. The flying club wouldn’t allow Beaver to use its planes for her new endeavor, as it was a not-forprofit operation. She wasn’t about to let that stop her. “I couldn’t let the dream die!” she exclaimed. “I ended up buying my own plane.” She found a 1972 Cessna Cardinal in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I took a commercial flight down there, thinking to hire a mechanic to check everything out before I signed my life away,” she recalled with a merry laugh. “The flight was delayed, I got in after dark, and everyone had gone home! There was no one there to help.” The intrepid aviator bought the plane anyway—and quickly realized that it featured a variety of avionics she had never seen before. “I ran after the salesman so he could come back and show me,” she said, still chuckling. “I took off after dark 27 LAKELANDBOATING.COM f e b r u a r Y 2 011