Flying high

A tale of WWII, the British Royal Air Force and a small Texas town

Before the United States was involved in World War II, British pilots had already fought in many battles. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) even sent young men overseas to be trained as pilots in civilian ight schools in the United States. Some of the instructors teaching these young men—boys, really—were young female pilots.

Author Lorraine Heath’s latest book, Girls of Flight City, a historical novel inspired by true events, tells the story of how WWII affected the lives of three women when they were called upon to train British pilots in a small town in Texas.

Although Girls of Flight City is Heath’s 47th novel for adults, she’s had the idea for more than 30 years. “In 1991, there was an article in the Dallas Morning News about a woman named Virginia Brewer who lived in Terrell, Texas, and tended to the 20 graves at the British cemetery there. That was my introduction to the fact that British pilots came over to Terrell to be trained to be pilots during the war,” Heath recalls.

She filed the story away until about four years ago, when she began conducting more research. The resulting novel is about the lives of Jessie; her sister, Kitty; and her friend Rhonda. You learn about their loves, losses, strengths and struggles.

Although born to a British mother and American father in England, Heath was raised by her parents mostly in Texas and now lives with her family just north of Dallas. She got started as a writer at age 7 by penning her first story, about a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid. “I knew at some point I wanted to write a novel, but with college and then work and kids, I didn’t really get started until I was in my 30s,” she says.

Even though she’s known for being a romance writer, Heath admits that she didn’t think she’d like the genre until she was traveling out of town for business. While looking for a book to read, she saw a book with flowers on the cover. It was Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. She read it and was hooked.

“The relationships, the characters, just the whole story—I loved it,” she says. By month’s end, she had read everything by Spencer. She decided that was the type of book she wanted to write.

While continuing in her day job, Heath began writing at home. She wrote five novels that were never published, creating them on a typewriter— which made editing rough. “I came home from work one day, and my typewriter was gone. There was a computer there. My husband [Nathan] had decided I was serious about writing, and even though it was a strain on our budget, he bought it,” Heath tells the Connection. “No printer, though. I couldn’t print anything, but I could at least type it in. I sat down and started writing a new story [Sweet Lullaby], and that was the first one that got published [in 1994].”

When romance novels began tying into WWII, she knew it was time for Girls of Flight City. “I wanted to show that women had played a role in training the pilots,” Heath says. “It was important to me.”

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