Famed air show performer Dick Willetts flies west

Famed air show performer Richard “Dick” Lee Willetts flew west June 11, 2022. He was 95.

The Albia, Iowa, native, fell in love with flying after his first flight as a teenager. After serving in Germany in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he returned to the United States, where he had a long career with the Railway Mail Service.

In 1958, he bought the first of four airplanes, a 1946 Piper Cub. He would later buy a Globe Swift built in 1946, a Christen Eagle biplane, and a Cessna. But his favorite plane was his Cub, which he used in his air show act, Comedy Cub Capers.

“With that Cub, Dick developed his own air show routines, dressing like a hillbilly and clowning around, then flying fun aerobatics using his talented and elegant piloting skills,” wrote Sparky Barnes in a recent story about Dick’s Cub in General Aviation News.

He was awarded the prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for over 50 years of exemplary aviation by the FAA when he was 93.

Visitation will be held from 2-8 p.m. on July 6, 2022, at the Tharp Funeral Home in Albia with Dick’s family present from 5-8 p.m. to greet family and friends.

Graveside services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on, July 7, 2022, at Oak View Cemetery in Albia.

Dick was preceded in death by his wife of 47 years, Martha Jane and a son in infancy, Richard Bryan Willetts.

Memorials have been established to the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals in memory of Dick and Martha Jane’s son.

To read Dick’s full obituary, click here. To read Sparky Barnes’ story about Dick and his beloved Cub, click here.