Grace Heckman

Marriage of Grace Heckman to Gifford Bull on September 6, 1947
The Ithaca Journal, Sep 8 1947, P. 4, Col.4-5, with photo of bride

"Miss Grace Marie Heckman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene S. Heckman of Forest Home, and Gifford Bull, son of Drs. Harry and Helen Bull of 817 E. State St., were married at 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, in the Lutheran Church.
  The Rev. A. H. Sardeson, pastor, performed the ceremony in a setting of church decorations consisting of baskets of white gladioli and lilies, and tall lighted tapers. Edward Bardwell was at the organ and played the Bridal Chorus Wedding March, recessional and several other selections.
  The bride's father gave her in marriage. Her white slipper satin gown with sweetheart neckline had long pointed sleeves and a tapered bodice gathered at the hips. She wore a fingertip veil, with an oval tiara of starched net outlined with white satin. With this, the bride had on a single strand of pearls. Her colonial type bouquet consisted of white chrysanthemums and gladioli.
  Miss Ruth Heckman, sister of the bride, was her only attendant. Her gown was of blue-green taffeta, with a fitted bodice, buttoned down the front, with cap sleeves. She wore matching lace mits, and her wide picture hat was made of the same material as the dress alternated with strips of blue-green net. Her yellow bouquet was similar to the bride's.
  Mrs. Heckman, in a pearl gray crepe dress with wine colored accessories, had a corsage of dark red roses. The bridegroom's mother wore a fuchsia crepe dress, black accessories, and a corsage of white carnations.
  Dr. Christopher Bull of Rochester was his brother's best man. Ushers were William S. Miller and Hugh Thompson, both of Ithaca.
  A reception for the immediate families followed at the home of the bride's parents. For a wedding trip to Bermuda by plane the bride chose a gray suit with wine accessories, and an orchid corsage.
  The bride was graduated from Ithaca High School with the class of 1940, and has been a flight instructor at the Ithaca Municipal Airport for several years. Bull, a graduate of Ithaca High School, is also a graduate of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell, 1942. He flew the Hump during the war for China National Aviation Corp. Bull is now a graduate student in the School of Aeronautical Engineering at Cornell.
  Prenuptial events consisted of showers given by Dr. Edgar E. Thorsland and Mrs. Thorsland, Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Peters, and Mrs. G. R. Chamberlain."

Snow storm can't stop local aviator from saving Saratoga newspaper. By Grace Heckman Bull, the aviator.
The Ithaca Journal, Jun 27 2003, P. 14, Cols. 1-3, with photo

'In January 1947, the gears in the priming press of the newspaper in Saratoga Springs broke, and the only spare gears were at the Ithaca Journal, another paper in the Gannett chain.
  The Journal called Mohawk Airlines to arrange to ship the gears, but Mohawk at the time had not gotten authorization to fly in bad weather. So the paper called the Ithaca Flying Service, based at the Municipal Airport at the head of Cayuga Lake and operating out of what is now the Hangar Theater, to see if they could fly the gem's to Saratoga.
  I worked for the Ithaca Flying Service as a commercial pilot and flight instructor, and I was assigned the task. H.M. Peters, the manager, gave me my orders: I was to go to the Journal early the next morning. pick up the two gears and fly them to Saratoga or some nearby airport, depending on the amount of snow on the runway, and if the weather was so bad I couldn't make it, I was to "land somewhere in the Mohawk Valley and put the gears on a train, and if you can't do that, get a wheelbarrow and push them there." The gears had to get through.
  The next morning was gray with lowering ceilings as I set off early, heading east with the big, heavy gears strapped down on the back seat of the Aeronca Champ. When I encountered freezing rain which glazed the windshield, I changed to a more northerly course where I would find lower terrain in the Mohawk Valley. Visibility was poor due to snow and I had to go around the city of Utica because I was too low to fly over it legally. The ground was covered with snow at Saratoga.
  The runway was not plowed and I had no way of knowing how deep the snow was and the Aeronca was not equipped with skis. Fortunately, the Aeronca was tail heavy and even more so with the gears in the back and I had no trouble landing. It took a lot of power to taxi in the deep snow.
  There were newspaper people and photographers waiting as I climbed out of the little Aeronca, stiff with cold. I had not counted on the sheet of ice under the snow, and my feet slid out from under me and I sat down hard. Fortunately, the photographers were gentlemen and did not take pictures of me sitting in the snow. They helped me to my feet and interviewed me, and I learned that the paper had dispatched crews to various airports in the area in case I had to land elsewhere.
  Subsequently, I received clippings from a clipping service in New York City with an article that had appeared in the New York Times, of the rescue flight with the gears so that the "Saratogian" could go to press.
  The editors of The Gannetteer, the Gannett Newspapers magazine, published the gear story and used my photo on the cover.
  Now I can truthfully say that I was once a cover girl."