Page 4 - Robeson Living

Ida instructing students in her
New York apartment
Dreams in Flight

By K. Blake Tyner, MLS

One thing connected the Wright brothers, Orville and Wil- North Carolina, was the keynote speaker for the celebration.
ber, to Ida Van Smith and that was the desire to fly – to soar Standing alongside Orville Wright, McLean spoke of how
with the birds. North Carolina has always felt a sense of important the event a quarter of a century earlier had been to
pride that the Wright brothers choose the Outer Banks to the citizens of the state.
make their first flight a reality.
“The people of North Carolina, for whom I speak today,
Robeson county’s native son, Gov. Angus Wilton McLean are by no means unmindful or unappreciative of the honor
participated in the 25th anniversary of the Wright Broth- which has come to them by reason of the events occurring
ers’ flight with the unveiling of a 6-foot memorial on Dec. here when Orville and Wilber Wright sought seclusion on
17, 1928. The memorial, costing $2,500, was craved to this remote island and began the experiments which resulted
resemble a boulder and was engraved with a fitting in- in giving to mankind a new agency of transportation.”
scription:
“We are happy in the thought that one of these distinguished
“The First Successful Flight of an airplane was made brothers, Mr. Orville Wright, is present today to witness
from this spot by Orville Wright December 17, 1903 in these exercises, commemorating the courage, the skill and
a machine designed and built by Wilber and Orville the ingenuity of his brother and himself. Their achievement
Wright.” has added two names to the long list of great American pio-
neers.”
McLean, then in the last year of his term as governor of Robeson Living ~ Summer 2018