COUNTY WIDE TH U RS DA Y , M A Y 2 6 , 20 16
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Pieces of American history
Yorkville woman contributes plates from Eisenhower era to plane restoration effort By JOHN ETHEREDGE
jetheredge@shawmedia.com
T
hanks to the generosity of a Yorkville resident, an historic china place-setting that was made for the first presidential plane to carry the Air Force One designation will soon be delivered to an organization now working to restore it as a flying museum. Jackie Straub said the placesetting, which has been in her family for decades and most recently was stored in a drawer, will be shipped to Dynamic Aviation in Bridgewater, Virginia. Each of the four plates features gold trim with a painted cluster of blue and white columbine flower blossoms along with the initials “DDE” – for Dwight David Eisenhower. On the back of each plate an inscription in gold reads:
“The Presidential Plane Columbine Washington, D.C. May 1956 Shenango China”
Dynamic Aviation acquired the plane – President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Columbine II – in 2014 from a prior private owner
Photos by John Etheredge - jetheredge@shawmedia.com
Learn more For more about the history of the Columbine II, the first Air Force One, and the effort to restore it, visit john2031.com/columbine/main.html. who intended to scrap it. Since that time Dynamic restored the plane to flight-worthy status in Arizona and then flew it March 23 to Bridgewater for further restoration work. How her father came into possession of the plates is not clear, Straub said, but she believes her late uncle may have given the plates to him many years ago. She said her father had three brothers and four sisters and most of them worked in the Shenango China plate factory in New Castle, Pennsylvania, during the mid-20th century. In addition to fine china place-settings, she said Shenango was a major manufacturer of restaurant dinnerware until the late 1980s. In addition to dishes for the Columbine II, Shenango produced dishes for the White
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Jackie Straub of Yorkville displays one of four china plates made for President Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential plane, the Columbine II, in 1956. The plates have been in Straub’s family for decades. After her father died in 2013, The back of each of Jackie Straub’s Air Force One china plates features this Straub said she decided they should be placed on public display someplace instead of being in storage. inscription in gold letters.