EARLY DANBURY-MARBLEHEAD PENINSULA TRANSPORTATION - Lorrie Halblaub
AIRPLANES Part 3
A previous article Airplanes #1, featured the story of the Marblehead Airport that was located off Alexander Pike, and the role that Carl Biro of Biro Manufacturing played in it. This story is about another Biro who was an aviatrix.
Doris Worful was not your usual teenage girl. Doris was born in St. Charles, Missouri, in 1924. She knew she wanted to be an airplane pilot by the time she was in high school. As a child, Doris heard of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Doris was a teenager when Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared in 1937. Still, despite Earhart’s fame, this was still a time when very few women became pilots.
Doris would spend hours at a small local airfield watching planes take off and land. While she was still in high school, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Many men joined the service to fight in World War II. Each branch of the service needed aviators.
So, by her 18th birthday, Doris had earned her pilot’s license, and by the age of 20, she became a Certified Flight Instructor. At age 21, she owned half interest in a Flight School based at Lambert Field in St. Louis, MO. Doris not only achieved her dream of being a pilot, but she taught others how to fly!
One of her students in St. Louis was a young man from Marblehead, Ohio, who was serving in the U.S. Navy. Elmer Biro, Danbury High School Class of 1936, married Doris in 1946, and brought her to Marblehead. He worked at his father’s company, Biro Manufacturing, in Marblehead. Elmer and Doris raised their four children, who all graduated from Danbury; Michael-’67, Richard-’68, DeLite-’69 and Denise-’71.
Doris became involved in the community, joined St. Joseph Catholic Church, and for many years kept on flying. She was a pioneer in her field. She lived the rest of her life on the Marblehead Peninsula and passed away last year (2023) at age ninety-eight.
