Excerpts from “Not Just a Hero, But a Legend,”
Kenny (Scholter) was one of nine children in his family and very capable of managing on his own for being 14 at the time. He was determined that he was going to work at the airport with all these flying machine masterpieces. His dream of wanting to fly one of them emerged as a real possibility. Cliff Ball, owner of the Pittsburgh-McKeesport airfield, knew Kenny as the kid who hung around the airfield. Seeing his enthusiasm and determination, hired him for running errands and doing odd jobs. With Cliff's permission, Kenny stayed in an old wooden t-hanger on the airport grounds, sleeping on an old worn-out parachute so he could be near his work at the airport and the pilots.
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On January 17, 1925, President Coolidge signed the Kelly Airmail Act giving government authority to contract out private airline companies to do airmail services. On March 21,1926, the Postmaster General negotiated an airmail contract with Cliff Ball establishing the first privately owned airline company to do airmail services. This decision meant more important responsibilities for Kenny. He was now a necessary part of the crew handling the loading and unloading of airmail for all the pilots.
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In November 1926, Cliff Ball renamed his airport from Pittsburgh-McKeesport to Bettis Field in honor of the late Lt. Christopher Bettis who was a U.S. Army Air Corps flying ace. The following year, 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his first successful transatlantic solo flight in a single engine Ryan Monoplane that he named “The Spirit of St. Louis”.
After his successful flight, Lindbergh went on tour of the USA with his famous plane. Bettis Field was not a scheduled stop for Lindbergh, but when Kenny found out that Lindbergh would be flying over the Pittsburgh area, he went and made a large welcome sign for on the field that could be seen from the air that read “Hello Lindy”.
Lindbergh caught site of the written message from the air and decided to land his plane on Bettis Field and find out who wrote the sign. The crew said it was Kenny. Word quickly got out that Lindbergh was at Bettis Field and reporters quickly gathered to get a story. While that was going on Cliff Ball was planning an event in Lindbergh's honor and told Kenny he wanted him to greet Lindbergh. Kenny was beyond excited, but he only had grease-stained work clothes to wear. Dave Barr Peat aware of Kenny's circumstances, contacted his close friend, Sam Brendal, and explained the situation. Sam said to take the kid down to the Haberdashery in downtown Pittsburgh and get him a full set of clothing and charge it to my account.
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The more experience he gained working at the airport, the more he wanted to fly a plane. During airmail duties, he would go on runs with the pilots, often sitting with the pilots in the cockpit or on a sack of mail. Kenny would learn about the instrument panel in detail and how it controlled the plane that eventually turned into flight training for his pilot's license.
Author Joyce Echevaria, of Bloomfield, Conn., is a long-time friend of the Scholter family and wrote the article to share their story.
