Airplane artist marks a milestone - with plenty of humor

PHOTO BY SUE HIGGINS - Artist Owen Hughes stands next to the collage of prints of the many paintings and drawings he has created over the years.  

HONORED: Local artist Owen Hughes 
who has adorned countless World War II planes 
with his pin-up girl and insignia paintings 
celebrated decades of extraordinary 
experiences at his 90th birthday party.

By SUE HIGGINS
editor@cgazette.com  

Owen Hughes has painted the noses of more than 100 World War II planes and turned countless bomber jackets into works of art with his handiwork.

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.

And he painted the only B-29 now in flying condition in the United States and was commissioned to do a portrait of Rochester-area astronaut Pam Melroy.

If Hughes were to pen a rsum, it would no doubt be several pages long, as those are but a few accomplishments.

It has been a life well lived for Hughes, a longtime Newark resident and businessman.

To honor him on his 90th birthday, his daughter Sue Scruggs, of Chattanooga, Tenn. threw a party for him March 28 at the United Methodist Church in Newark. More than 60 relatives and friends celebrated.

'Growing up, I never thought that what Dad did was anything special,' said Scruggs. 'He always painted and did his artwork. I just thought it was something all dads do.'

But his creations are extraordinary and have received national attention. Born in Ohio, Hughes began painting when he was about 5. He was never a pilot, but served a few years in the Army Air Force during World War II as a sign painter and artist with the 10th Air Depot Group in the 8th Air Force, and later in the 9th Air Force.

Additionally, he assembled and did all the artwork for a book about the 441st Troop Carrier Group, to which he was attached. At the end 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.

Although a lot of Hughes' artwork relates to the military, he has many ideas for other things he'd like to paint. And he's still going strong.

'You never really retire from being an artist,' said Hughes, who continues to paint in oils and watercolor and draw with pen and ink.

At 90, he is completing a commissioned pin-up painting of the wife of a captain in the Air Force. That painting will also be put on a jacket.

'I think that is why I've lived to be 90,' Hughes said. 'I have so much to do every day and still have so much planned. Even the doctors can't believe I'm 90 years old. I'm busy all the time.'

Among those at his party was Norma Walters, who knows him through church.

'I love his sense of humor,' she said. 'He seems to see the lighter side of things.'

Indeed, as voices were raised in the last note of 'Happy Birthday,' Hughes reached in his jacket and to the delight of celebrants whipped out a gigantic butcher knife with which he intended to cut the cake.

Laughing, his wife, Virginia, said, 'Owen, now get rid of that thing.'

Friend Carol Nary said a few years ago, Hughes was out with heart problems. When he returned to church, Nary said he announced, 'I'm well enough now for all the women to come up and give me hugs. It won't hurt my heart.'

'So, we did,' laughed Nary.

Robert Gasten, who worked with Hughes at Bloomer Bros., said Hughes had done a painting for his camp in the mountains. According to Gasten's wife Gladys, Hughes caught wind of the fact that Gasten often ran in a towel from their isolated cottage along a dirt road to the lake to swim.

However, one time a couple of girls happened by in a car, as Gasten was running to the lake hence, Hughes' title for Gasten's painting: 'Camp Running Bare.'

Besides his humor, Hughes' ability to talk at length is well-known.

As the artist prepared to speak to an experimental aircraft group in Titusville, Pa., the organizer questioned Virginia as to whether or not he'd be able to talk for an hour. She assured the worried man that he would.

About mid-way through Hughes' speech, that same organizer turned to Virginia and asked, 'How do you stop him?'

Bruce Eddy, of Newark, said, 'I sit and listen to him for hours and hours. He's a great story-teller with fascinating stories.'

Fellow toastmaster Barbara Meeks concurred. 'His stories, as well as his life, have been a great inspiration to me and our fellow toastmasters. His e-mails are always uplifting and seem to be just what I need at the time.'

Also remembering his ability to tell great stories and jokes, John Murphy who, as a teenager, did yard work for Hughes talked about Hughes' frugal nature, recalling how Hughes kept and reused instructional notes he had written for workmen on index cards.

That same thriftiness shone through when he gave his granddaughter, Gina Swigart, away at her wedding.

'He wore the same suit that he wore when he gave my mother away, insisting he had a perfectly good suit and wasn't renting a tuxedo,' Swigart said.

As the birthday party wound to an end and people began saying their goodbyes, Hughes asked a young woman if she had seen his newest bumper sticker. 'It says,' he joked, Kiss an artist today.''

To his delight, she promptly did.

Owen Hughes - a biography

Born in Fremont, Ohio in 1919, Owen Hughes began his professional art career in the Midwest as a designer and painter of outdoor signs and displays. Subsequently, he worked as a cartoonist for an Ohio utility company.

During the early 1940's, he spent four and a half years as an artist and sign painter and an unofficial airplane nose artist in the 8th and 9th United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

'The military frowned on it (nose art) at first,' said Hughes. 'Then, they realized what a morale builder it was. After a mission that the plane had gotten them safely through, the crew would reach up and pat the girl painted on its nose.'

Hughes was transferred to the 441st Troop Carrier Group, where he completed the artwork for an historical book about that group.

At the end of the war, he was placed in charge of all art and sign work for the 9th Troop Carrier Command,which was part of an Air Force exhibit under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. During that three-month stint, he lived under the tower in a C-47.

Hughes met and married his wife, Virginia, during the war. They moved to Newark after the war, when Hughes took a job as a commercial artist for Bloomer Bros., later Fold Pak Corp.

But he always specialized in nose art pin-up girls and squadron insignias.

Hughes painted 'The Glacier Girl' in the 1990s for a World War II P-38 fighter plane that was recovered from a glacier in Greenland in 1992.

In 2002, he was commissioned to paint Doc, of 'Snow White,' on the last B-29 bomber that can be restored to flying condition.

David and Helen Melroy of Pittsford, parents of Col. Pamela Ann Melroy, who flew a space shuttle mission in 2000, requested that Hughes do a painting of the shuttle Discovery piloted by their daughter.

Hughes is a volunteer artist with the National Warplane Museum in Elmira and the artist with the United States Aviation Museum in South Euclid, Ohio.

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