Declared the "Mother of Aviators," Mary Elizabeth Tusch welcomed hundreds of aviators into her bungalow across the street from the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of California, Berkeley. Like any good mother she cared for the young students, many of whom were far from home, calling them her "boys".
Link below:
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/edit ... TTy7iaTlRwMother Tusch became an avid collector of aviation objects, and those who visited her brought mementos from their travels and flying exploits to add to her collection. Over the years, her little house was filled wall-to-wall with flight-related items such as photos, scrapbooks, autographs, newspaper clippings, posters, maps, log books, and correspondence, along with objects such as insignias, medals, plaques, goggles, helmets, coats, propellers, and art made out of shell casings. The house became known as “The Hangar, Shrine of the Air.”
'God bless you' was the way Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Tusch always said goodbye to her 'boys' whenever they left her shingled bungalow at 2211 Union St., Berkeley.
Mrs. Tusch's 'boys' were thousands of airmen who called the Union Street address 'The Hangar' and made it their home away from home.
For 33 years, the great and lowly of aviation filed in and out of the Berkeley bungalow to pay their respects to the woman they called 'Mother Tusch.'
In return for her kindness and hospitality, they sent her mementos of air victory and historic flights. They returned from the war to visit their adopted mother and leave their autographs on the walls and ceilings of the little house.
When Mrs. Tusch was forced by illness to move to Washington, D.C., and live with her daughter in 1950, the little house was stripped of its mementoes, right done to the autographed wallpaper.
Everything was shipped to the National Air Museum in Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Tusch's son-in-law, Paul E. Garber, is curator.
Mrs. Tusch died in Washington, D.C., last year, but her daughter has brought her ashes home to Berkeley to place them next to those of her husband, engineer Cary Allen Tusch, who died in 1928.
'There won't be any ceremony when the plaque is installed,' Mrs. Garber said. 'I have to go back to Washington and it won't be finished before I leave.'
'It will be a simple plaque, but I thought it would be fitting to put that kind of an inscription on it, because mother was always saying 'God Bless You' to people.'"
Link below has many of her scrapebooks and photo collections:
https://sova.si.edu/search/digital?q=Tusch%2C+Mary+E.
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