1. Louis Purnell was born in Snow Hill, Maryland on April 5,1920.
13 Facts About Louis Purnell
1. 2.
Louis Purnell's father painted Pullman railroad cars and his mother was a teacher.
3.
From an early age, Louis Purnell was interested in aircraft and flight.
4.
Louis Purnell would ride his bike to the nearby airfield to watch and study the planes in flight.
5.
Louis Purnell was eventually commissioned a captain and served in the 99th Fighter Squadron, and later the 332nd Fighter Group.
6.
Louis Purnell served two tours of duty in North Africa, Sicily, and the Italian peninsula, flying 88 escort missions.
7.
Louis Purnell guarded bombers and encountered sometimes open racism from fellow airmen, whom he then protected in the air.
8.
In between combat tours, Louis Purnell returned to Tuskegee as a flight instructor but finding combat "safer", he applied to go back to Europe.
9.
Louis Purnell worked as a speech therapist and later a government contracting agent.
10.
Louis Purnell was the first African-American to become a curator at the museum.
11.
Louis Purnell was noted for his work on the Spacecraft and Spacesuits exhibit and expanded and cared for the museums collections until his retirement in 1985.
12.
Louis Purnell afterward remained a consultant for the museum and traveled as a lecturer.
13.
Louis Purnell had one son and a daughter from a prior marriage and one stepdaughter.