Next to last WASP (Women Airforce Service) pilot to die in WWII

WASP Katherine Applegate Keeler Dussaq. Class 44-W-1.

(1905 – 26 November 1944)

 (Excerpt from To Live and Die a WASP)

WASP Katherine Keeler Dussaq

The day after WASP Hazel Lee Louie died (25 November 1944); 39-year-old Kay Dussaq (Class 44-W-1) was in trouble over Western Ohio. Perhaps it was the freezing rain, the fog, or ice, but at about 8:45 in the evening Kay’s AT-6 was going down near New Carlisle, Ohio. For some reason, Kay was not wearing her safety harness, and when the plane crashed, she struck her head on the control stick and died instantly.

Katherine Applegate was born in Dayton, Washington, March 14, 1905. Hers was an Oregon pioneer family. In 1846, her great uncle,

WASP Katherine Keeler Dussaq

Jesse Applegate, had blazed the Applegate Trail into the Oregon Territory. Her Father, Arthur McClellan Applegate, had risen from laboring in a flourmill to manager of several flour mills in Oregon and Washington. He had married Kay’s mother, Clare Moritz, in November 1898. Kay was their third daughter and grew up in Dayton with her three sisters and two brothers. After graduation from Harrington High School, she

attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and then the State College of Washington in Pullman. In 1924, she was one of 70 students out of 700 applicants accepted by Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. She graduated in 1927 with a degree in Psychology.

In 1929, she and one of her friends from Stanford, Leonarde Keeler, went to Chicago and began working at Northwestern University in the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory. Kay and Leonarde married, August 14, 1930.

They divorced in May 1941 and the following December Kay married Rene Dussaq. Dussaq was a popular lecturer. Within days of their marriage, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and in March 1942, Dussaq enlisted. Kay closed her consulting business and went to work for the Piper Aircraft Cooperation in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

Kay applied to the WASPs and began training at Avenger Field, August 9, 1943. By graduation the following February, she had raised her total flying time to over 400 hours. Her assignment was Sioux Falls Army Base in South Dakota, but soon she transferred to Randolph Field, near San Antonio, Texas.

WASP Katherine Applegate Keeler Dussaq

Because of her flying hours, and the recognition she had attained during her decade of scientific crime fighting, at age 39, Kay moved quickly from staff pilot to Coordinator of WASP activities. Just before her fatal flight, Kay had received another promotion. She moved to Training Command Headquarters in Houston as WASP Executive for all three training commands.

After her crash Kay was returned home for burial in the Dayton, Washington City Cemetery.

RIP