 | Grayson
County TXGenWeb
Gray Field
Municipal Airport
Denison, Texas |
The
airport, located two miles east of Denison, is known to have been in
operation as early as the fall of 1928 and still a working airport in
1947-1948. The 1947-1948 Texas Almanac includes a list of airports by city; Gray Field is the only one listed for Denison.
"C. L. Letot has taken over the management of Gray Field at Denison, Texas, and
is equipping a flying school and commercial aviation business." (Airport Construction and Management, 1929, vol. 1). Gray Field, situated in Denison, Texas, will be used as a branch school by
the Dallas Aviation School of Dallas which has taken over the field on a
one year lease with option of renewal for five. Spare parts, gasoline and
oil will be kept at the Denison airport.
According to Capt. W. F.
Long, head of the school, Don Bigbee (died July 1932) will manage the field and will be
assisted by three pilots and one mechanic. A few days ago, four planes
were flown from Love Field to the new base. (c1930)
"Gray Field, the municipal airport 2 miles east of Denison, is no longer
available for use. (Air Commerce Bulletin, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1931) Captain W. F. Long, head of the Dallas Aviation School, appears in many sources.
In the 1930s and 1940s he placed ads in newspapers across the state soliciting
students for his school at Love Field. The 1931 article cited previously, which
said the field was "no longer available for use," suggests that the Dallas
Aviation School may not have exercised its option to renew the one-year lease.
 San Antonio Express
18 July 1932
Biographical sketch of Raymond Willard Hayes (1916 - 1999)
- "Raymond
Willard Hayes was born May 18th, 1916 in Bonham, Texas. As
a young boy his family moved to Denison, Texas. It was there
in 1934, during his senior year of high school at Denison High, that Hayes began to take flying lessons. After
five years of training at Gray Field in Denison, Hayes went on to earn both his
pilot certification and his commercial pilot’s license."
--Raymond
Willard Hayes Collection, Box 1, Folder 5, History of Aviation
Collection,Special Collections Department, McDermott Library, The
University of Texas at Dallas.
---Information provided by Jim Sears
Grayson County Collection
Frontier Village
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