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Remember...Winson Ambrose Schoonover Jr.
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Winson Ambrose Schoonover Jr. was born August 26, 1925, at Elkhurst, Clay County, West Virginia, to parents Winson A. Schoonover and Ruth Ester Davis Schoonover. It should be noted that in some documents, including the 1930 Federal Census, Winson Sr. is listed as Ninel A. Schoonover, but in a preponderance of sources he is Winson A. Sr., which is validated by the fact that he had a son Winson Jr. Various sources indicate that Winson Sr. and Ruth had a large family that included, in addition to Winson Jr., sons Wershel Clyde, Hubert Carl, Ralph Ogden, Archie Graham, and Daniel L. Schoonover. Winson Jr.'s sisters included Dessel S. Schoonover Harold, Goldie Maycle Schoonover Blake, Sylvia Irine Schoonover Shamblen, Kathleen V. Schoonover Bowen, and Cristena Lenora Schoonover [Williams?]. (Sources: Dorsey, DeWitt Fields, and Schoonover 001_2015-01-06 family trees on Ancestry.com; Federal Census documents from 1910 through 1940; and Find A Grave entries for Winson A. Schoonover Jr. and Winson A. Schoonover Sr., as well as the Find A Grave entry for his mother, Ruth Ester Davis Schoonover. Spellings and dates are not consistent throughout these documents.) While his inferred residence in 1935 was still in Clay County, the 1940 census shows Winson Jr. to be living in South Charleston with his brother Hubert; perhaps this move occurred so he could attend South Charleston High School.
Coming of age in the era of World War II, Winson Jr. registered for the draft on his 18th birthday. He was still living in Elkhurst, Clay County, and he stated that he was unemployed and his father was the person who would always know his address. His draft registration indicates he was 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with brown eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy complexion; a birthmark on the left side of face would aid in his identification. While the magnitude of his service in World War II is unclear, it appears that he maintained a presence in the military in the second half of the 1940s as a member of the West Virginia Air National Guard.
| In 1949, Winson married Madeline Margaret Taylor, and they subsequently had a child. Winson had obtained employment at Union Carbide as a lab technician in a chemical plant. But the Korean War loomed, and by 1951, he was a sergeant in the 123rd Food Service Squadron of the 123rd Fighter Bomber Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard. It was his fate to be on the C-47 that crashed in Kanawha County on April 8, 1951. |  |
Much has been written locally about the crash and its aftermath—the Charleston Gazette and Daily Mail offered timely coverage of the event and its aftermath, and other newspapers around the state followed suit. In a practice no longer familiar, newspapers often published an "extra," which allowed for frequent updates on breaking news. The following account, however, is excerpted from the actual accident report:
After reporting over the Charleston Radio Range at 5000 feet on an IFR flight from Godman Air Force Base, Kentucky to Charleston, West Virginia, the pilot was cleared by Charleston Approach Control to descent to 3500 feet, pending approach clearance. . . . [The pilot then indicated a turn procedure.] The procedure turn report was the last radio contact with the aircraft.The C-47 crashed into a hill approximately 1150 feet high located 4.6 miles from the approach end of runway 23 at Kanawha County Airport and 1.07 miles West Northwest of the Outer Marker beacon. Both wings of the aircraft were sheared off on impact by trees. The fuselage came to rest approximately 125 yards from the point of impact and was almost completely consumed by the fire which apparently was instantaneous with collision. . . .
One of the two survivors of the crash was a rated pilot riding as passenger who succumbed to burn injuries within less than 24 hours. The other survivor lived for approximately one week after the crash. The statements of the survivors indicate that they were positioned further aft in the plane than any of the other passengers and it is worthy of note that one of the survivors stated that to the best of his knowledge all the rest of the passengers who suffered fatal injuries had their safety belts fastened. . . .
[Here the report provides numerous technical details regarding the approach pattern and describes the condition of the aircraft on impact, concluding that the damage made the cause of the crash difficulty to determine.]
The report continues:
The fact that both survivors reported seeing the airport a short time before the crash lends credence to the belief that the pilot misread the altimeter and was actually flying at 1300 feet indicated when he reported being at 2300 outbound over the inner locator at 1132C. This altitude would put the aircraft below the 1000 foot overcast and above the 500 foot broken ceiling which would enable the passengers to get a glimpse of the airport through the broken cloud layer.The time lapse of only 2 minutes from the position over the inner located outbound until the procedure report further suggests the actions of this pilot in setting up his approach were distinctly hurried. One wrist watch found in the wreckage was stopped at 1136C, so the time of the accident is assumed as between 1135C and 1136.
While the failure of the ILS equipment might be considered as conducive to the accident, the pilot was aware of the malfunction and planned to make his approach independently of this system. It does not appear therefore that this failure should be considered as a direct cause factor. (Report of AF Aircraft Accident, West Virginia State Archives.)
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Another group of airmen traveled in a separate plane, but upon notification of the crash, they returned to Godman. A joint memorial service for the West Virginia casualties was held at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston. |
| Sgt. Winson Ambrose Schoonover Jr. was buried in a family cemetery (Davis Cemetery) in the county in which he was born. Sgt. Schoonover was awarded the National Defense Service Medal. Madeline Margaret Taylor Schoonover remarried to Joseph Somerville Ogburn in 1956, and, at the time of her death (2012), she was living in Virginia. Richard Schoonover Ogburn, who was born September 12, 1951, and therefore most likely the child of Winson and Madeline Schoonover, shows up in Richmond, Virginia, marriage records in 1974. It appears that Joseph may have adopted Richard upon his marriage to Madeline. |  |
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure, who gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Syd Edwards, historian who has extensively written about the C-47 crash
June 2024
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
