Tuskegee Airman Samuel L. Broadnax dead at 84
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NovaSkegee:
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuskegee Airman Samuel L. Broadnax dead at 84
A former Oroville resident
Oroville Mercury-Register
James Goodwin and former Oroville resident Samuel L. Broadnax (foreground) were honored in November 2007 at an event honoring the Tuskegee Airmen in Marin City, CA. (File photo by Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal)
OROVILLE, CA -- A former Oroville resident, who left the area in the 1940s and became one of a unique group of fighter pilots during World War II known as the Tuskegee Airmen, was remembered at a memorial service Friday in Marysville.
Samuel L. Broadnax, 84, died early Oct. 7 at his home in Sacramento, said his son, Brian Broadnax.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black military airmen.
Longtime resident Stu Shaner said Broadnax grew up in Oroville and attended Oroville High School until his senior year, when he enlisted in the military. At the age of 17, Broadnax enlisted in the Army Air Corps and trained to become a pilot at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama.
He graduated in 1945 as a fighter pilot.
He was the author of a book about African-American aviation pioneers, and according to his book biography, was a broadcaster and journalist.
After leaving the military, Broadnax attended Yuba College, Howard University and University of California-Berkeley.
Broadnax's son, Brian Broadnax, said there are no other relatives remaining in Oroville. The former Orovillian was 84.
Released in October 2008 by the University of Nebraska Press is "Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation" by Samuel L. Broadnax. After a love of flying and years spent as a pilot at the Tuskegee Army Air Base, Samuel Broadnax began to research the experiences of other black pilots and “pioneers” of aviation. This book is a culmination of those tales, from Charles Wesley Peters who flew his own plane in 1911, to the 1945 Freeman Field mutiny against segregationist policies.
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