Weyman Watson, son of famed Tuskegee Airman, dies in fire
Apr 17, 2018Weyman Watson, who followed his Tuskegee Airman father into a career of military flight and later worked to preserve the legacy of that pioneering group of aviators, died of smoke inhalation in a March 18 fire at his home in South Orange, New Jersey. Watson, a 1974 graduate of Westbury High School who maintained ties to the community, was 61.His father’s front-line participation in the desegregation of the military placed Watson, a tall, lanky, soft-spoken former intelligence officer, among the children of America’s civil rights icons.Word of his death drew reactions from a childhood chum who once lived next door, members of a national Tuskegee Airmen organization co-founded by his father Spann Watson in 1972, and a heartbroken former Navy subordinate who credited Weyman Watson with persuading him to obtain a college degree.“He was a great division officer and just an awesome cat,” said Stanford Lee, of Arlington, Virginia, who served in the Navy under Watson during the 1980s. “He stayed on me to go to college. I got my degree because of Weyman.” Watson’s father helped push forward one of the most significant movements in civil rights history. After the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to lift a ban on black pilots in the U.S. military in 1941, Spann Watson was one of the first black pilots in U.S. history to fly in combat. He later risked his career to help lead the peaceful “Freeman Field Mutiny” demonstration in 1945, which set in motion the end of racial segregation in the military three years later.Weyman Watson said although America had not yet appreciated their accomplishments, the former Tuskegee pilots who socialized at his family’s Westbury home impressed him with their dignity and competence.Get the Newsday Now newsletter!The best of Newsday every day in your inbox. But it was not until a documentary of the Tuskegee Airmen aired while he serving in the Navy during the 1980s that he developed an appreciation for th... (Newsday)
