Marilyn Myers Peyton

Marylyn E. (Myers) Holcomb Peyton, passed away in Sun City West, Arizona, on January 20, 2018, a month short of her 94th birthday. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 25, 1924, to Gaylord W. Myers and Mary B. Scoggins Myers. She grew up in Lawrence, KS and then Des Moines, Iowa. As a young girl Marylyn became intrigued with flying, through making and flying model airplanes. She also saw a barn-stormer perform, and went for a ride, and from then on she was fascinated with clouds, the sky, and the thrill of flying. 
She left High School in order to work for United Airlines at the Des Moines airport, and to learn to fly. As an agent, she chocked wheels, handled luggage, took tickets, prepared weather reports, and worked the radio communications for the airport. In her spare time, and with her own money, she took flying lessons beginning in 1942, and became licensed as a pilot. She was also a member of the Civil Air Patrol. 
Marylyn wanted to contribute to the war effort as a pilot, if possible. She heard of a group of women being trained to fly military aircraft to ferry planes and personnel, test planes, and pull gunnery targets, domestically - in order to make male pilots available for service overseas. She took the train from Des Moines, Iowa to Wichita, Kansas in the fall of 1943 to try to find the enlistment site, but was unable to do so. Disappointed, she was taking a cab back to the train station, when the cab driver told her where the women pilots were enlisting. She enrolled, and in December 1943, she traveled to Sweetwater, Texas, to begin training with the Women Air force Service Pilots (WASP). 
Over 20,000 women applied to the WASP between 1942 and 1944, and applicants had to already be a licensed pilot. Marylyn was among the mere 1,103 who were accepted and who ultimately passed the rigorous 7 months of training to become a WASP. She graduated with WASP class 44-5 in June 1944, and she served as a WASP test pilot, stationed in Pecos, Texas. Test pilots flew planes with reported defects in order to determine what needed to be fixed, as well as planes that had been repaired and needed to be checked out. She also was a flight instructor, and ferried officers from base to base when needed.
The WASP were suddenly disbanded in December 1944, without having become officially veterans. They finally were recognized and received full veteran status in the late 1970’s. Marylyn and her husband Bill helped to organize some WASP reunions, thereafter. She made a videotaped interview about her WASP experience which is part of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project. She was also a founding member of the Women in Military Service of America (WIMSA) Memorial, and is in its database at the Memorial in Arlington. She was also interviewed for the official WASP archives, at Texas Women’s University, Denton, Texas.
On March 10, 2010, Congress presented the surviving WASP, and representatives of those deceased, with the Congressional Gold Medal at the Capital in Washington, D.C. Her daughter, Cathy, and her husband accompanied Marylyn and another former WASP, Dori Marland Martin (43-8) to Washington D.C. to receive their Medals.
While working as a WASP at Pecos AAB, Texas, Marylyn met Charles F. Holcomb, an Army Air Corp pilot. They married in September 1944, before he shipped out to Europe. They had one child, Cathy, in July 1945. An early wartime divorce ensued, and Marylyn raised Cathy as a single mother primarily in Denver, Colorado. Being drawn to aviation again, she worked in meteorology at United Air Lines for several years. She married William J. Peyton, Jr. (Bill) in 1962 in Denver, Colorado. He was an FBI agent in Denver, and a Veterans Administration attorney in Fresno, California. 
Marylyn and Bill were happily married for 40 years. They loved to travel in their Winnebago and delighted in dancing to Big Band and swing music. They were both tall, and their heads could be seen above the crowd. They enjoyed retirement in Loveland, Colorado, and in Sun City West, Arizona. They especially enjoyed time in Rocky Mountain National Park, where Bill had been a seasonal Ranger, at a seasonal family home near Estes Park. Marylyn was also an expert seamstress, cook, and gardener.
Marylyn took her “final flight” on January 20, 2018 at Brookdale Sun City West Sandridge (Freedom Inn). She and her family were always grateful for the loving care provided to her by her caregivers at Freedom Inn. She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Bill, in 2002. She is survived by her brother, Dr. John Myers, her half-sister, Lois Salazar (Sal), and her half-brother, Jim Myers (Diane). She is also survived by her daughter, Cathy Holcomb Goodwin (Doug Curless), her granddaughter, Dr. Kim Goodwin (Aaron Brennan), and her two great grandchildren, Olivia and Chase Brennan. She is also survived by her three step children, Bill Peyton, Louise Peyton, and Vincent Peyton, and their children and grandchildren. 
Marylyn remembered the thrill of flying to the end. She was always a sky-watcher, and enjoyed identifying the clouds, and watching weather. The masthead for the original WASP newsletter, the Avenger, fittingly stated: “We live in the wind and sand... and our eyes are on the stars.”