Whistler, Anita (d. 1953)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1953 May 14 p. 1

Birth date:

text of obituary:

Service Held in India For Air Crash Victim

PAULINE LEHMAN OF MT. LAKE, MINN. DIES IN NEW DEHLI TRAGEDY

Relatives in this country received word that friends at New Dehli [sic Delhi], India arranged a Christian burial for Miss Pauline Lehman, 26-year-old exchange teacher of Mt. Lake, Minn. who was among 19 persons killed in the crash of an Air India transport plane on Friday, May 8. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Quentin Lehman of Mt. Lake.

A tragic and unusual chain of events preceded the fatal crash at New Dehli [sic Delhi], according to reports received in this country. After completing their assignments as exchange teachers at Rangoon, Burma, Miss Lehman and two friends, Anita Whistler of the University of Southern California and Jean Cohen of Baltimore planned a world tour. While in India Miss Lehman decided to visit the General Conference Mission station at Champa. On May 2 her two friends, en route to New Dehli [sic Delhi] to meet her, were killed in the crash of a British Jet Comet at Calcutta.

Two days before she was scheduled to take the plane at New Dehli [sic Delhi], Miss Lehman lost her passport and was advised that she would be delayed until a new one could be issued. However, a short time before her plane was to take off, she found the original passport and went to the airport in time to board the ill-fated plane, which crashed in a ball of fire a short time after taking off.

Miss Lehman, a former student of Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio, is survived by her parents and a brother, Roger, whose marriage she had planned to attend upon her return to the United States.