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Owen Hughes, WWII artist, will speak in Marion All Marion veterans are welcome to attend a Veterans Day Luncheon to be held at the Marion American Legion Post 1430 on Sunday, November 11th at 1 p.m. Guest speaker will be nationally known artist Owen W. Hughes. Hughes, a 40-plus year resident of Newark, was born in Fremont, Ohio in 1919 and started drawing about age five. His professional career included designing and painting outdoor displays throughout the Midwest and he later became a cartoonist for a utility company in Ohio. Although he never became a pilot, he served 4 years in the U. S. Army Air Force during WWII as a sign painter and artist with the 10th Air Depot Group in the 8th Air Force, and later in the 9th Air Force. He is best known for the nose art he painted on more than 100 B-17s, P-47s, C-47s and countless pilots jackets. He was transferred to the 9th Troop Carrier Command where he assembled and did all the artwork for an historical book for, and about, the 441st Troop Carrier Group, to which he was attached. At the conclusion of the war he was in charge of all art and sign work for the 9th Troop Carrier Command in an Air Force exhibit under the Eiffel Tower. After the war, he worked as a commercial artist at Bloomer Bros. in Newark for 26 years from which he retired in 1961. He later returned to painting nose art on WWII planes and leather jackets and presently has his own business in Newark. He is the artist and sign painter for the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo and was interviewed by the Associated Press and on national TV while painting nose art on a WWII B-24 bomber in Dayton, Ohio. He also painted the only B-29 in the U. S. in flying condition at Wichita, KS and was commissioned to paint a portrait of Pam Mulroy from Rochester who piloted the Shuttle on its most recent trip into space. Marion American Legion Post 1430 members with a paid 2008 membership are welcome to attend the luncheon at no charge. Guests of veterans are welcome with a small donation. Hughes encourages all veterans of all ages to sit down with someone and a tape recorder and talk about their service years. As a historian, I urge any area veteran interested in relating their stories to contact fellow reporter John Zornow (also a historian) or myself c/o The Courier-Gazette at 331.1000, e-mail editor@cgazette.com or your town historian. Anyone interested in becoming a Legion member should bring DD-214 discharge papers and sign up at the luncheon Sunday in Marion. Copyright
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