Pilot Jack Knight Presentation by Granddaughter Patricia Lammersfeld

by Rebecka Hoyt, Editor & Photographer; with excerpts from the May 21, 2022 Jack Knight Press Release by Mary Lister and Robert Brown

On June 1 2022 the granddaughter of air mailman Jack Knight, held a presentation at Buchanan District Library. Patricia Lammersfeld gave this presentation to 7th graders at Buchanan Middle School, as well as all ages of our community at the American Legion Post #51 and the library. Patricia only knew of him as he passed away when she was seven. A book titled, Pilot Jack Knight by A.M. Anderson & R.E. Johnson came out when she was 8 years old. She saw this book in her school library and when she told the librarian that he was her grandpa, she didn’t believe her. Patricia then told her mother after she got home from school and the next day she returned with a letter written by her mother about how Jack Knight was Patricia’s grandpa. He was also the first pilot to log 1 million miles!

On February 22, 1921, Jack Knight started on the flight for which he became famous, as part of a coast to coast airmail experiment to prove that airmail could include night flying. As one of seven pilots in this experiment, his flight was scheduled from North Platte, Nebraska, to Omaha, but circumstances spurred him to continue on to the next relay location in Chicago, thus bestowing him a place in historic flights in the U.S.

In 1978 the Knight Chapel at Oak Ridge Cemetery was built and named in Knight’s honor. The Centennial year of Knight’s flight was 2021, however, the Covid19 pandemic has delayed the celebration. 

Patricia brought photos as well as a slide show, and the famous book of him to show her attentive audiences. 

These events were sponsored by Friends of the Oak Ridge Cemetery, and co-sponsored by Buchanan District Library, and American Legion Ralph Rumbaugh Post 51 in Buchanan, Michigan. For more information, contact Robert Brown at RobtDBrown@aol.com or Mary Lister at mary.lister522@gmail.com.

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