JANETTE CRUMPLER
1956 - 1960?
FLIGHT ATTENDANT
BIL OMA


Subject: Gone West: Janet Crumpler
-Bob Lambourne
(12/19/01)

Do you have any details such as date & location of death, 
cause, when & where she worked at FL, what position, obituary, etc.?
-Jake Lamkins
(12/19/01)

Janet was a flight attendent in Billings and Omaha.  
Have no further details.
-Bob Lambourne
(12/19/01)

Posted at FL Club 
Has Janet Crumpler died?
Bob Lambourne e-mailed me that Janet died but he had no details other than
she was a flight attendant based at BIL & OMA.
Does anyone have further info?
-Jake Lamkins
(12/20/01)

Janet was a friend and I would hear from her at least once a year.
About two years ago, when I didn't receive a letter from her,
I called her home in Baton Rouge and her son told me she had died recently.
She had a pulmonary disease.
-Mary Ellen Metzger
(8/2/03)

I just found an article by Janette (her spelling) in the Jan. 1957 SUNLINER NEWS.
Janette's article (shown below) is about her first experiences as a stewardess.
-Jake Lamkins
(11/14/03)

UPON BECOMING A STEWARDESS
There is, I believe, an unwritten rule that is not included in any stewardess manual of rules and regulation for working for an airline - 
this rule being that each new stewardess must receive her fair-? share of teasing, ribbing and general practical jokes from the pilots. 
At any rate, my observations from eight month’s flying would seem to bear out this belief.

From sometimes embarrasing if humorous, personal experience in my first couple of month’s work, 
I would venture to say that the razzing and teasing are part and parcel of the orientation program - 
though not a part of it that one is forewarned of; so for this reason the tried and tested pranks never lose their laugh-producing power.

And I 'm sure that the pilots - bless their practical-joker souls -
must feel that they would not be upholding true airline tradition were they to let one girl get by without giving her the fun treatment of unofficial hazing.

Which brings me around to the point of all this discussion which is that:
Once upon a time there was a new stewardess fresh out of training class who was on her initial flight. 
Though she was perhaps a little tense with the new responsibilities, everything seemed to be running smoothly —
that is, until they ran into an electrical storm and then things were not so smooth anymore. 
While this stewardess, recently reviewed in all the ways of caring for frightened or airsick passengers, 
was performing each duty religiously, the green light from the crew came on signalling her to come to the cockpit inmediately. 
Upon reaching the cockpit, the captain anxiously inquired whether she had put her grounding wire in her hat. 
This was something new. She could not remember ever having studied anything about having to wear a ground wire during a storm. 
The sober-faced crew quickly informed her that she must at all times while traveling in the path 
of an electrical storm wear a grounding wire in her hat to prevent the ship being struck by lightning. 
So she listened, somewhat in alarm, as they proceeded to place in her hat a rabbit-eared antenna affair fashioned from a piece of copper wire.

Then feeling more secure, she went about her work attending her passengers with her little aerial protruding from her cap during the remainder of the flight.

When the flight terminated and the passengers had been bid farewell the stewardess went inside the terminal building. 
A curious station agent asked what the “antenna” was for. 
Whereupon the stewardess gave the explanation she had been given and had since been giving her inquisitive passengers. 
Then and only then did she realize from the loud guffaws of the station personnel and the pilots that she had simply been the victim of another practical joke.
Yes, those pilots never miss a “trick”.
-Janette Crumpler
Frontier Airlines
Billings, Montana
(SUNLINER NEWS, January 1957)
(11/14/03)

M. J. CRUMPLER
BIL Stew
DOB 7/8/34
DOH 2/9/56
Per 2/60 FL Roster
-Jake Lamkins
(5/26/11)

No Crumpler born in 1934 at SSDI matches.
She must have married and had another name.
She is not on the 11/18/61 FL/AFA Seniority List.
-Jake Lamkins
(6/6/11)

Possibility: It fits her birthday, location and time of death mentioned by Mary Ellen.
JOHNSON, MARTHA J
Born 08 Jul 1934
Died 31 Jul 2001 (V)
Age 67
At 70816 Baton Rouge, LA
SSN issued in Arkansas
-SSDI
(6/23/11)

Martha J Crumpler
Martha J Crumpler
Baton Rouge, LA 
-Intelius.com
(6/25/11)

There are several variations on the spelling of her name.
I'll use the one she used in her 1957 article - Janette.
She must have left FL between the May 1960 article and the 11/61 FA seniority list.
The Johnson SSDI listing matches the Intelius entry on name (Above two items).
I will use the Johnson death date for Janette until I learn otherwise.
I tried to phone Mary Ellen Metzger for more info but her phone has been disconnected.
Still have no obituary.
-Jake Lamkins
(6/25/11)