Two antique planes share the sky during an open house and memorial dedication at Franklin Flying Field on Aug. 27, 1994.
Daily Journal Archives
News from around Johnson County as reported on Aug. 29 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 1994, one of the stories on the front page of the Daily Journal was about aviators taking to the air to honor the former owners of a Franklin airstrip.
“Whenever pilots land their planes on the Franklin Flying Field runway, they’ll be touching down on a strip of history,” the story began.
Two days earlier, on Aug. 27, 1994, the newly renovated airstrip was dedicated to H. Jack Mullendore and Don Mullendore Memorial Runway. For many years, the Mullendore brothers operated the small airport their father Hubert founded about half-century earlier south of Franklin.
Antique planes, skydivers, ultralight gliders and radio-controlled small planes helped celebrate the decision. About 200 to 300 people came and went during the day-long event —- including many of the pilots who earned their wings at the airport over three generations.
“For Jack and Don, aviation was their life,” said Marguerite Mullendore, Jack’s widow. “[Jack] loved flying; they both did. They didn’t think of it as work or a job. It was a joy to them.”
In the fall of 1993, the runway was resurfaced with asphalt. Several pilots and friends of the Mullendores donated their labor and $4,800 of the $28,000 cost for the project.
“There’s sort of a brotherhood among pilots, a feeling of affection,” Marguerite Mullendore said. “They wanted to show it in this way.”
Don Mullendore died in 1978. Jack Mullendore, who was a state representative from Johnson County for 20 years, died in 1992.
For safety reasons, there is no sign or monument on the runway. The runway itself is the memorial.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2014
Franklin’s Indigo Duck restaurant announced it would close the following month after four years downtown.
2005
Fifteen new stores were expected to open later that year as part of an expansion at the Edinburgh Premium Outlets.
1984
Law enforcement recovered 55 plants of what was believed to be marijuana from a field north of Amity.
