Memories Of Hindenburg Haunt Two Lakehurst Women

By Bob Vosseller

LAKEHURST

–It

happened more than 80 years ago but the memories of that fateful day in May, 1937, will never be forgotten.

Two borough women in their 90s recalled their memories of that day as if it were yesterday.

“My grandfather helped bring the Hindenburg to land when it fi rst came to the base and he helped build Hangar One (located at the Lakehurst Naval base which is part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst),” said Denise Maynard, a local photographer. Her grandfather was Harry Brown.

Her mother, Virginia Brown, said she and her husband came to Lakehurst in 1925. We’ve seen a lot of changes.”

Brown described what she observed on May 6, 1937. “We saw this great big dirigible go over as it passed overhead outside our house and then we heard a big noise. As soon as we heard that my father took off and we didn’t see him until the next morning.”

Her daughter noted, “she worked on the base for 35 years and retired from there.” Brown said she worked for the Navy Exchange in the office and her husband was in the service.

“She saw the Hindenburg and I saw the

Blue Angels when they crashed,” Maynard added.

Lakehurst Historical Society member Bill Schmidt has been collecting the memories of people like Brown. Joyce Safford McGee is another long-time borough resident who Schmidt spoke to in his ongoing mission to communicate with those who are connected to the Hindenburg tragedy.

Schmidt who does presentations at the LHS Museum and other requested locations about the Hindenburg, sat down with McGee and her daughter Jill Lewis and went over some family history. They were later joined by The Manchester Times for another session of memory sharing about interesting times gone by.

“Joyce was five years old when that day (May 7, 1937) took place,” Schmidt said.

“That afternoon we knew the dirigible was going to come over because in the morning as it went over it was low enough - about a tree top high - that they would wave from the windows to us and we would wave back so we knew that when they left, they would come back again,” she said.

“Being as young as I was, I didn’t know the reason that they had left and came back again. I was outside playing in the yard and it started to rain. We had a bad