Famed Tuskegee Airman dies

Milton Pitts Crenchaw, a Legionnaire and one of the last remaining instructors for the Tuskegee Airmen, passed away near Atlanta last week. He was 96.

Crenchaw was one of the original flight instructors for the program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to train black pilots in a segregated unit. He was the first Arkansan to be successfully trained by the federal government as a civilian licensed pilot.

According to Crenchaw's biography by the Butler Center of Arkansas Studies, he trained hundreds of pilots at the Tuskegee Institute in eastern Alabama in the 1940s, according to The Associated Press. He "became a primary civilian flight instructor and eventually one of the two original supervising squadron commanders under Chief Pilot Charles A. Anderson. He and Charles Foxx were the first instructors for the first group of student pilot trainees between 1941 and 1946."

He later was instrumental in establishing an aviation program at Philander Smith College in his native Little Rock, Ark..

Roderick Smothers Sr., the current president of Philander Smith, said Milton Crenchaw left a great legacy at the college.

"We train Philander Smith College students to graduate with aspirations to change the world for the better," Smothers told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Simply put, Milton Crenchaw's life was a soaring testament because he made the world a better place. The original Tuskegee Airman worked fervently and passionately to get young people involved in aviation, and we are forever grateful that he chose for a time to deposit his wealth of wisdom and passion into Philander Smith students. He will be remembered well not only for his heroic legacy, but also for his towering yet gentle spirit that he poured into his unwavering friendship to this institution."

Crenchaw's daughter Delores Singleton told the AP that he had been suffering from cardiovascular disease and pneumonia.

Click here to see an interview Inviting Arkansas did with Crenchaw.