Photo of Kathryn Hein, a theatre arts, film, literature and creative writing high school instructor in South Bend, who presented the story of Dagmar Stegemann at the Silverbrook Cemetery Tour on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019.
Dagmar Stegemann was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1904. At the age of 12, her uncle taught her flying skills. She learned not only the technical skills of aviation, but also how to be a showman in the skies.
In January 1925, at the age of 20, Dagmar moved to Chicago where she had an aunt she could live with. But what she really wanted was to see how American barnstorming worked, so she traveled to northern Indiana and southwest Michigan to study and perform.
(“Barnstorming” was what early aviation looked like; since aircraft were relatively new and most pilots were in WWI and would travel to different towns, storing aircraft in barns and performing for citizens on weekends).
After performing her wing-walker routine in Elkhart, IN and Cassopolis, MI, she and pilot Willis Kysor were set to amaze the people of Niles, MI with their daring aerial acts. On Sunday, Oct. 18, 1925, Miss Stegemann saluted the crowd and climbed into the cockpit with Mr. Kysor.
The plan was to reach 1500 feet, have Dagmar climb out of the cockpit, walk along the wing of the plane with a knotted rope for safety, drop into the parachute hanging under the wing, then cut free and drift to the ground; nothing remarkable for the pair. However, since it was so chilly that day, Stegemann was wearing extra layers, which impeded her ability to reach the release for the parachute.
Stuck hanging under the wing and unable to climb back up, Kysor knew that he couldn’t land on the runway without dragging Dagmar, too. So, after flying around for 30 minutes, he flew low to the ground to shout to the onlookers to head to nearby Barron Lake for an emergency cut-and-release.
Once over the lake, Dagmar somehow misunderstood, and she cut herself loose 200-250 feet above the water, landing headfirst. Joe Goodman, one of the volunteers who rushed out to the lake, was nearby and held her head above water as she lay unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital where surgeons attempted to resuscitate her. 55 minutes after hitting the water, she was pronounced dead from hemorrhage to the lungs at age 21. She was buried in Silverbrook Cemetery by her aviation friends.
