Leo Arthur Brumm

Capt. Leo A. Brumm, U.S.A.F, Ret., devoted father, loving Husband to Judith passed from this life to a higher life on Wednesday, November 10, 2010. He was preceded in death by his daughters Karen Louise Gillis, Geneva Carol Brumm and granddaughter Stephanie Leigh Brumm. He is survived by his wife of forty years, Judith Guinn Brumm; children, Tedd Brumm, David Beery and Beth Beery Aleksa; grandchildren, Tony Gillis, Alena Bailey, Shelly Cooper, Tina Kover, Liz Kover, Raymond Daniel, Trisha Beery, Kristen Beery, Bailey Downing, Drake Downing, Dylan Downing; and nine great-grandchildren, Aiden and Gavin Louser, Jacob, Jayden and Jarrett Jones, Lillyanna Renee Vidaurri, Gracie Daniel, Camryn Downing and Karina Bailey.

A Memorial Service for Leo will be held Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 4:30 PM at Sparkman Funeral Home in Richardson.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations are asked to be made in Leo's honor to VNA Hospice at www.VNATexas.org, or may be sent to:

Office of the President

Visiting Nurse Association

1440 W. Mockingbird Lane

Dallas, TX 75247

Lee was born in San Francisco, California December 14, 1914. From a very early age he was fascinated by airplanes, a passion which he shared with his father. When Lee was six years old his father took him on his first airplane ride in an OX 5 Swallow aircraft.

At the age of twelve his uncle, Edwards Symms, who was among the early HAM operators in the San Francisco area, introduced him to short wave radio, which was a hobby he kept up the rest of his life. Lee was a past president of the Garland ham Radio Club

Lee graduated high school in 1932 during the depression, and there was no money for college, and no jobs to be found in the Alameda area. In 1937 he went to Englewood, CA to work with his dad, who was the chief draftsman on the Hollywood Turf Club horseracing track. When that job was complete he hiked to Mines Field, now LAX International Airport, looking for work. His first job there was with Ted Brown Aeronautics. Mrs. Brown was a former starlet and had friends in the movie industry. A number of movie stars invested in Ted Brown’s business. Lee remember meeting Mary Pickford and her husband, and in particular Errol Flynn.

After six months he left Ted Brown to work for California Fliers School of Aviation, also at Mines field. His first job there was as a “line boy”. This required him to clean the airplanes and prepare them for student lessons. Two months doing this and he was moved into aircraft repair. Part of his pay was an hour and a half of flying time. He was able to solo after 5 hours of training, which was the minimum required at that time.

He left California Fliers to work Northrop Aviation, still at Mines Field. After a few months of stamping parts numbers on pieces of metal he succumbed to the appeal of a friend of his and set out hitchhiking to Texas, Houston area, hoping to find a job with the startup airline Lamsa. When this job search netted zero he hitched hiked to Barksdale Field in Shreveport, Louisiana and enlisted in the US Army Air Corps. He was accepted and sworn in as an enlisted man in March 1937. Because of his aircraft experience he was placed in the base airplane repair hanger as an aircraft mechanic.

In late 1937 he was sent to Tulsa Oklahoma to attend Sparten School of Aviation. In January of 1938, when he graduated form Sparten, he was assigned to a Savannah, Georgia air base as an aircraft mechanic and was qualified as an AM2CL, Airman 2nd Class.

In October the United States was busy getting ready for a war and needed more pilots, and they opened flight school examinations to all non flying personnel. He took the test and passed this 2 year college course exam. In October 1941 Lee received orders to report to primary flight training in Corsicana, Texas. This training ended in early December of 1941 and he was sent to Randolph Field in San Antonio, TX, and about half way through basic training he was grounded with a nasopharynx infection. While in the hospital the USA declared war on Japan, and Germany declared war on the USA. Lee was immediately put back on flight training, stuffy nose and all. At the dismay of the flight instructor, who wanted him to train as a fighter pilot, he chose reconnaissance observation. His training at Randolph ended in 1942 and he went to Brooks Field in San Antonio for advanced training in AT-6 and BC-1 airplane. Lee was one of five people who were chosen to stay at Brooks Field and train student pilot resonance observers.

In June of 1942 those who were left behind as instructors were shipped to California for maneuvers with General Patton’s Tank Forces. Service under General Patton would fill a full page, so this is will just a highlight the experience. General Patton was an aviation enthusiast and even had his own light plane, a Stenson Voyager, and eventually the plane was assigned to Lee’s squadron. As the only pilot in his group who had a commercial civilian license, Lee was assigned as the pilot for General Patton’s airplane. This airplane was used for flying General Patton and other high ranking officers on numerous trips to Los Angeles in the nice cool coast.

Lee took a medical retirement retired from the AirForce in 1946.

He was employed at Chance Vaught, and then in 1951 found an announcing job with KLIF in Dallas as newsman, and filling in as a D.J. when there was an opening. He worked at KVIL for a while, and then in 1952 and he went to work wth Dallas Morning News TV, KRLD, and was a news reporter.

By 1955 he turned to his other love of photography for a living. He continued working in radio, TV and making commercials. His next job was in radio with radio KBOX as a newsman, and drove a new beautiful bright red Pontiac as the news car. In 1957 Lee became an announcer on the six to midnight shift at WRR AM. He stayed here until 1972.

Lee decided about this time, in 1975, that he needed additional education and enrolled ICS course by mail order in electronics. He did odd announcing jobs with several now defunct radio stations while studying.

In 1977 Lee got a job with an electronics firm, SECODE, which stands for “Special Encoding Devices”. He was there for 5 wonderful years as an electronic bench technician. In 1984 they sold out to a Florida company and Lee went to Ocala Florida. He was offered a transfer, but he and Judith did not want to leave Dallas, so he went there for the last two months teaching the product to the company that purchased SECODE.

When the company moved he became a genuine Senior Citizen and retired. After retirement, Lee was Editor of “Outdoor Times,” an area outdoor newspaper.

Lee loved the outdoors fishing and camping. He was an avid sailor, and raced at White Rock in the 1960s. After his retirement he and Judith discovered cruising and had many wonderful voyages with family and friends. Lee’s last sail was this past summer with some of his family on Lake Lewisville.

Sparkman Funeral Home

1029 S. Greenville Ave

Richardson, TX 75081

(972) 238-7855