“Winging It” Over Marco Island

“The plane climbs to 1,500 feet then dives at the main runway going 170 miles per hour. After it noses up, it does maneuvers like a loop, a figure eight and a wingover.” 

According to the late Bill Rose, “Myrt has a magnetic and winning personality. That plus performing as a wing walker and demonstrating parachutes made her very popular with people attending air shows. As a wing walker, she would be strapped to a pole on the top of the upper wings of a Stearman biplane.” 

As a wing walker, it helps to be physically fit, have a strong sense of adventure, nerves of steel and brave enough to battle strong winds and G-forces as the plane climbs, dips, and rolls. Caution: This is NOT for the faint hearted!

Myrt Rose was part of the rare breed of professional wing walkers performing with American Barnstormers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with the famed duo of pilot Walt Pierce and wife Sandy, from 1976 to 1980.

Growing up, Myrt’s family lived by a small airport where Myrt and her father would watch parachuters jump out of airplanes. This is where it was written in the stars – a kind of kismet – that Myrt would stretch her own wings and fly into the sky!

In 1985, Myrt met Bill Rose at the Oshkosh Air Show. They later married and started collecting and flying antique airplanes. The last time Myrt rode the wings was on February 22, 1997, in Marco Island as a surprise for Bill on his 70th birthday. She performed aerobatic stunts over the Jolley Bridge where guests aboard the paddlewheeler boat, Rosie O’Shea, watched in awe as the Stearman dipped, rolled, and looped in the sky.  

Local muralist, J.J. Stinchcomb, vividly captured Myrt’s wing walking performance on Walt Pierce’s 1940, 450-horsepower Stearman biplane called “Ol’ Smoky”, on a 12’ x 32’ mural recently commissioned by Myrt for her hangar wall on Wing South Airpark in Naples. In the mural, the plane flies in from the west doing a double barrel roll into a loop and then flying off.

According to J.J., he tried to capture all the special meanings of the various aerial scenes on a massive blank space. The inspiration was sparked by Lucy, the amphibious 1944 Grumman Goose, flying in the mid-1980s over South Beach, Dickman’s Point, Kice Island, Cape Romano, Caxambas and surrounding islands with a southern vantage point.  

The mural scenes were a dedication to the planes kept at Bill and Myrt Rose’s hangar at Wing South Airpark in Naples. All the planes in the mural are heading towards the east and when viewing, it leads you towards the hangar door opening.

Myrt learned to fly in a 1941 Piper J-3 Cub that she bought when she was teaching school in Massachusetts. She named it “Winston” for it looked like a Winston. Unfortunately, she sold the plane and she often wondered whatever happened to my Winston! Bill found Winston and surprised Myrt by fully restoring it.

Note:  Bill Rose passed away on April 9,2010.

J.J.’s first mural in this project was a 12’ x 16’ acrylic on canvas, with trompe l’oeil wood frame with rosette corners of “Winston”, Myrt’s 1941 Piper J-3-Cub with its distinctive blue fuselage and yellow wings.

In early August 2011, from her South Barrington, Illinois home, Myrt decided to take Winston up for a short late afternoon flight over Chicago, saying, “It was a beautiful fall afternoon, and I hadn’t flown in over a week!” Soon, a couple of F-16s from Toledo North American Aerospace Defense Command pulled up close; she assumed they were admiring her wood and fabric antique plane. She did not have a radio in her plane so the jets could not contact her. Once on the ground, her friends told her she had strayed into restricted airspace during a Chicago visit by President Obama! It made front page news nationally!

Myrt Harper Rose is a prominent Marco Island resident, philanthropist, and generous supporter of many local causes. She has a degree in interior design and taught art for many years, but she had wanderlust in her blood. Soon she was off exploring unfamiliar places such as the jungles of the Amazon.

According to J.J., “Myrt’s outgoing and charismatic personality always made me feel welcomed and at ease to discuss art and memories of Marco Island. Soon, I had the honor and opportunity to learn and paint some of the rarest antique planes out there.”

J.J. masterfully mixed memories with art and the mural captured Myrt’s love of flying. According to J.J., Myrt’s story inspires one to live life and not let it pass you by; open doors and keep moving towards the next chapter.”

J.J. is currently working on multiple coastal canvases and also an underwater mural scene for Marco Island Academy. Stinchcomb is a Marco Island native and best describes himself as a “paradise painter.”