When the Village all but abandoned the airport, Jack and Gracie kept it going as best they could! Jack would do some of the field maintenance while Gracie kept the old terminal building clean. In fact, we named one of the roads at the airport "Landage Way" as a tribute to their work keeping that airport going through those dark days.
You would often find them out at the Beiseker Airport; Jack tinkering with one of his antique airplanes while Gracie would be doing her needlework in the cab of the truck! Those two complemented each other. They raced motorcycles and race-cars together. She and Jack would strike out cross-country to antique plane gatherings across North America. Jack held a valid pilots' license and flew well into his eighties, and Gracie was always his co-pilot.
Gracie passed away quietly. She was 94 years old. My condolences to all her friends and family.
To see two of Gracie's and Jack's favorite planes, first go the Aero Space Museum of Calgary to see his WACO Cabin Biplane, seen in the photo above. The other aircraft (a blue and yellow open cockpit WACO biplane) is now flying in Hawaii - you can see a video of it flying on YouTube, here. If you look at the video carefully, you can see Jack's and Gracie's names still painted on the side of the cockpit. The new owner has left the plane pretty much exactly as the Landages had it; a tribute to their restoration skills!
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