BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (828newsNOW) —
EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone has a story — some more well-known than others. Across Western North Carolina, so much history is buried below the surface. Six feet under. With this series, we introduce you to some of the people who have left marks big and small on this special place we call home.
Famed World War II pilot and war bond promoter Col. Robert Knight Morgan (1918-2004) is buried in the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain.
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While bombers fell out of the sky more often than using their landing gear, the Memphis Belle’s crew became legends for the Allies and nightmares for the Axis powers during World War II.
Piloting the legendary plane was Colonel Robert Knight Morgan, an Asheville native and a hero of the United States, serving in both the European and Pacific Theaters. His bravery garnered him fame across America as a real-life comic book hero.
Morgan was born on July 31, 1918 in Asheville as the third child of David Bradley Morgan and Mabel Knight Edwards.
The Morgans were a well-off family with connections in the high society of Asheville and beyond. David Morgan was the president of Dimension Manufacturing Company, a furniture business in Asheville. The family’s social standing allowed Robert Morgan’s older siblings to court banking barons and royal offspring.
Robert – or as he was called at the time, Bob – grew up protected by a guard of nurses, but he didn’t let the surveillance deter his boyhood ambitions. Morgan became acquainted with a warden at the Biltmore Estate who took him fishing and hunting on the grounds.
Morgan was something of a problematic child, pulling pranks on his family and speeding around in his father’s Buick, claiming later in life to have made the trip between Asheville and Greenville, South Carolina in 55 minutes, speeding down the rickety mountain roads before the interstate was built.
In keeping with his troublemaking, at age 15, Morgan eloped with 13-year-old Doris Newman on June 6, 1931. Newman was a fellow student at Asheville Public School. Once Morgan’s parents found out about the arrangement, the gambit was over. The couple was forced to divorce just over a week after their wedding.
From then on, Morgan had a complicated history with lovers. Throughout his life, he was married six times.
The Great Depression obliterated the Morgan’s family wealth. David Morgan’s furniture manufacturing facility was forced to board up. Mr. Morgan was relegated to warden his shuttered plant, making far less money than he had before, forcing him to sell the family home.
Cornelia Vanderbilt, daughter of George Vanderbilt, and then owner of the Biltmore Estate, allowed the Morgans to live on the complex rent free until they got back on their feet.
After the Depression eased, Mr. Morgan was able to repurchase his furniture factory and rebuild the family fortune, later opening two additional plants.
After learning she had thyroid cancer in January of 1936, Morgan’s mother took her own life. He later recalled the event was the most traumatic experience of his life.
Morgan attended the University of Pennsylvania, studying at the Wharton School of Finance. After college, he worked for the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio as a traveling salesman showing the company’s office machines to clients.
Taking to the skies: The birth of the Memphis Belle
Seeing World War II as an imminent threat, Morgan enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in Richmond, Virginia in 1940. A few months later, he was ordered to receive basic flight training in Camden, South Carolina.
Morgan’s pranks from his youth continued throughout his training in the Army Air Forces, nearly ending his bombing ambitions before they got off the ground on several occasions.
Despite getting chewed out by his flight instructors regularly, Morgan kept earning promotions, never quite getting in as much trouble as someone who makes a low pass in a bomber over his boss’s backyard barbeque normally would.
After being transferred around to multiple air bases around the U.S., Morgan finally graduated from flight training as a Second Lieutenant on Dec. 12, 1941, only days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Upon graduating, Morgan was ordered to report to the 29th Bomb Group, 52nd Bomb Squadron at MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida.
Morgan labored through a series of retraining on new aircraft and reassignments to new squadrons while the Army tried to figure out what to do with the young gun.
Finally deployed to the 324th Squadron, 91st Bomb Group in Bassingbourn, England, Morgan was assigned command of a B-17 Flying Fortress which he named Memphis Belle. The plane was christened in honor of his lover at the time, Margaret Polk of Memphis, Tennessee.
Polk and Morgan had met at Walla Walla Army Air Base in southern Washington while he was receiving advanced flight training. Polk was there visiting her sister and brother-in-law, who was an Army physician.
The Memphis Belle flew over occupied Holland, Belgium, Germany and France in combat missions concluding on May 17, 1943, having dropped more than 60 tons of bombs.
Morgan and his crew were lauded as the first to complete 25 combat missions over occupied territory in Europe. The achievement is astonishing given some 80% of bombing missions at the time incurred casualties.
Stunning maneuvers mid-air: Downtown Asheville spectacle
The aerial superiority of the Memphis Belle garnered such lauding from the home front that Morgan was reassigned to the same duty given to the comic book character Captain America – selling war bonds.
But Morgan would not tour alone.
Along for the flight was the Belle herself, Margaret Polk. The Pilot and the Belle drummed up funding for the war effort through live performances across the country, using Morgan’s sky-high tales as the donation pitch.
One of the 29 stops Morgan made on tour was his hometown of Asheville. With spectators gathered, he decided to make the show worth attending.
Ever the daredevil, Morgan made an audaciously low route over Pack Square, flying directly between the Asheville City Hall and Buncombe County Courthouse buildings on Aug. 14, 1943.
Another stop on the tour was Wichita. While there, Morgan was given an exciting invitation. Boeing requested the pilot visit their Kansas assembly facility. Morgan was introduced to the new B-29 Superfortress. Sitting in the cockpit, Morgan knew he needed to fly one.
Next chapter: Pacific Theater
The bond tour ended, but not without another ending. The Belle was not to become the daredevil’s bride. The couple were said to only be friends after the bonds were sold.
Itching to jump in one of the freshly minted cockpits, Morgan volunteered for a second deployment so that he could fly the B-29.
But there was a catch.
Boeing’s newest model was only sent to the Pacific Theater – so to the Pacific, Morgan went.
The Superfortress made Major Morgan a menace above Tokyo, leading dozens of bombing runs with the 869th Bomb Squadron against the Japanese mainland in his B-29, the Dauntless Dotty, named for his fourth wife, Dorothy Johnson. The couple went on to have four children after the war.
In all, the tactful pilot completed 26 combat missions over Japan, leaving from Isley Field in the Northern Mariana Islands. For his valor, Morgan was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.
End of an era
Months after the peace papers were signed on Sept. 9, 1945, Morgan officially left active-duty service. He returned to his home in Asheville, remaining in the Air Force Reserve. Morgan rose to the rank of colonel before retiring in 1965.
Morgan hopped between jobs after the war, working with his brother at the family furniture company and as a Volkswagen dealer. The Morgan’s furniture business was sold to Drexel Enterprises in 1969. The brand has since gone defunct.
While visiting Memphis on a work trip, Morgan called Margaret, hoping to restart the engine of a burnt-out affection. Their love roared to life again, but only for a short while before burning out again. The Bomber and the Belle were not meant to be.
Morgan spent his golden years on a lecture circuit, relaying his tales of war to crowds across the nation, and some around the world too. He began limiting his appearances only as the new millennia neared.
The Memphis Belle was on display in Memphis, Tennessee from 1946-2005. Under her wing, Morgan married his sixth and final wife, Linda Dickerson, in 1991, whom he had met at one of the many airshows he attended.
Coauthored by Ron Powers, Morgan published an autobiography of his life and combat expeditions titled, The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle, which was released in 2001.
At an airshow at the Asheville Regional Airport on April 22, 2004, Morgan suffered a substantial fall. Ushered to Mission Hospital, doctors diagnosed the aged pilot with a fractured cervical vertebra. Morgan’s condition rapidly worsened from complications with pneumonia, requiring the use of a ventilator.
A few weeks later, Morgan was pulled off the ventilator and died on May 15, 2004, at age 85.
The colonel was cremated, and his ashes were interred at the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain. At his funeral service, World War II bombers flew overhead in tribute to his faithful service.
A year after Morgan’s death, the Memphis Belle was relocated to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
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