By Adam Sackowitz
As was reported in The Westbury Times last month, longtime Westbury resident Hilda Finger passed away in Portland, Oregon on Dec. 17, 2016 at the age of 101. Finger, who called the Village of Westbury home for 97 years, moved to Portland, Oregon to be closer to daughter Anita, four years ago.
Unbeknownst to many, Finger was an eyewitness to history. According to Reeva Brooks a longtime friend of Finger and also a longtime Westbury resident, “It was not uncommon for Finger, or people of her generation to see planes taking off at local airfields such as Curtiss and Mitchell.” At the age of 11, Finger witnessed Charles Lindbergh’s Transatlantic Flight, which commenced at Westbury’s Roosevelt Field.
Finger was quoted in Richard Panchyk’s 2007 Westbury history book entitled, A History of Westbury, Long Island, as an observer of the historic 1927 flight.
“Everybody was so excited and everybody was out to see what was going on. We could see the plane in the air from the village, taking off. There was nothing else around [to obstruct views]. My dad pointed it out to me. My sister was there at Roosevelt Field…”
In an article penned for the New York Times commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the historic flight in 2002, journalist Allan Richter wrote that, “Contemporary reports said about 150 had gathered to watch [Lindbergh’s Takeoff]”
-Adam Sackowitz is a lifelong resident of Westbury, NY and is a graduate student studying history at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. Sackowitz has advocated for the preservation of historic sites relating to Charles Lindbergh and John Glenn.
