2LT, Women Airforce Service Pilots, Leota Faye Delk Fails
Born: July 13, 1920
Died: October 08, 2002
Burial Site: SFNC, Section 26, Site 307
Leota Faye Delk Fails learned to fly airplanes in the fields near the family farm in southwest Oklahoma, where she was born. 1 During World War II, she was one of 1,830 women chosen to receive training for the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). 2 She entered the program with her twin sister Leona Maye. 2 She flew cargo coast to coast, delivering needed supplies. 1
Delk was born to Annie Haile and William Delk in Paducah, Texas. 3 Before the war Delk attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University. 4 After the war, Delk Fails went on to get bachelor’s and master’s degrees and became a teacher. 1 She married G.Y. Fails in 1947 in Jackson, Oklahoma. 5, 6 Delk Fails taught elementary school for nearly 40 years. 1, 6 When she taught the alphabet, she explained that “A” was for airplane and told her students stories about her time as a pilot and serving her country. 1 In her honor a teacher education scholarship was established in her name at Eastern New Mexico University. 6 Her name is listed on the National Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor “Dedicated to All Those Who Have Shared a Passion for Flight” at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. 1
Images & Documents
Fails, Leota
“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Southwestern Oklahoma State University; Year: 1941
Leota and Leona Delk
“Leota and Leona Delk.” Public Member Photos and Scanned Photographs. Ancestry.com.
Fails, Leota
“Leota Fails,” The Santa Fe New Mexican. August 18, 1960, 28. Newspapers.com.
National Air and Space Museum Wall of Honor.
“Leota Faye Fails: National Air and Space Museum.” Leota Faye Fails | National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian. Accessed January 14, 2023. https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/leota-faye-fails.
Notes:
1. “Leota Faye Fails: National Air and Space Museum.” Leota Faye Fails | National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian. Accessed January 14, 2023. https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/leota-faye-fails.
2. Hailey, C. Andy. “WWII Wasp Trainees.” Women Airforce Service Pilots – Remembered by Those Who Knew Them, November 21, 2022. https://www.wwii-women-pilots.org/wasp-trainees.html.
3. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
4. “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Southwestern Oklahoma State University; Year: 1941
5. Ancestry.com. Oklahoma, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1890-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
6. “Obituary of Leota Faye Fails.” Albuquerque Journal, October 13, 2002. http://obits.abqjournal.com/obits/show/106203.
Featured Image:
“Leota and Leona Delk.” Public Member Photos and Scanned Photographs. Ancestry.com.
Prepared by Sue Ruth, Ph.D., Central New Mexico Community College