Tuskegee Airman from LI dies at 88
Tuskegee Airman Victor Terrelonge attends Hempstead Town's annual African-American History Month Celebration at the Nathan L. H. Bennett Pavilion. Terrelonge, a WWII fighter pilot, was among the recipients of the town's Rosa Parks Award on Feb. 8, 2011. Credit: Charles Eckert
In his last years, Victor Terrelonge spent much of his time visiting schools and colleges to spread the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Terrelonge, who became one of America's early black military pilot cadets when he took part in a segregated flight-training program at Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1943, died at Nassau University Medical Center Monday of complications from a stroke. The longtime resident of Roosevelt was 88.
"He was one of our leaders, because he was there at the inception, when we first became known as the 'Red Tails,' " said Bill Wheeler, another Tuskegee pilot. "He helped pull us together in 1972."
A native of Jamaica who came to New York City as a teenager in 1937, Terrelonge studied aeronautical engineering at City College, according to his family. But when he tried to enroll in the Army's pilot-training program, he was turned away because of the military's policies of reserving coveted specialties for white personnel. He later was admitted into the Tuskegee program, but a researcher with Tuskegee Airman Inc. said Terrelonge did not advance beyond cadet training or fly missions over Europe.
While at Tuskegee, he married Yvonne Plummer, a British immigrant who was an aide to photographer Prentice H. Polk. The marriage ended in an amicable divorce.
After leaving active duty in 1947, Terrelonge moved to Jamaica, Queens. He took a job as a trolley driver with New York City's transit agency. He retired as a safety administrator in 1983 a year after marrying his current wife, Barbara Smith.
With his death, only four Tuskegee aviators are known to live on Long Island, said Wheeler, a Hempstead resident. The three others are Roscoe Brown, of Sag Harbor; Humphrey Patton, of Hempstead; and William Johnson, of Glen Cove.
Survivors include his first wife, Yvonne Plummer, of Raleigh, N.C.; and daughters Sheila Wilson, of the Bronx, Patt Terrelongue, of West Hempstead, Nadine "Toni" Barts, of Raleigh, and Michelle Long, of DeSoto, Texas. Also, wife Barbara Smith; her children, Jeanne Hayward, Jamaica, Queens, Walter Craig Matthews, Tampa Bay, Fla., Donna Lynn Matthews, Bayside, and Jodi Smith-Bennett, Sharon, Mass.
A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Memorial Presbyterian Church, Roosevelt.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
