Mary Frances Housley Hero of National Airlines Flight 83 (1926-1951)

The DC-4 came from Newark on January 14, 1951, and the pilots touched down too far along an icy Philadelphia runway. It ran through a fence into a ditch, the left wing broke off, the fuel tanks ruptured and fire followed. Seven of the 28 aboard died, including two infants and Housley. She had opened the emergency door, helped passengers out of their seat belts and pushed hesitant ones toward the exit before going back for a baby. In 2013 a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist called her forgotten and argued she deserved a better memorial.

What the plaque says

Mary Frances Housley Hero of National Airlines Flight 83 (1926-1951) Mary Frances Housley was born on October 12, 1926, to John and Fannie Mayer Housley in Knoxville, Tennessee. She lived at 300 Forestal Dr. (formerly Forest Ave.) while attending Central High School, graduating in 1944. In 1950 she became a flight attendant with National Airlines. Housley was the lone flight attendant on a Douglas DC-4 airplane (NAL Flight 83) with 25 passengers that crashed on January 14, 1951 at Philadelphia International Airport. She saved 10 passengers but perished while trying to rescue 4-month-old Brenda Smith.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 3.9 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 4.4 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 13 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 14 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Fort Adair — 0.2 mi
• Fountain City United Methodist Church/Fountain Head Campground — 1.0 mi
• Fountain City Schools — 1.2 mi
• Speedway Circle — 3.2 mi