From Denis Hambucken, close friend of John and co-author of a new book on central Illinois aviators”

John Warner and Hooterville Airport

John Warner caught the flying bug early in life—probably from his mother, Dorothy. Though not a pilot herself, Dorothy shared vivid memories of the great aviation pioneers she once counted among her acquaintances: Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Igor Sikorsky, and General James Doolittle, to name just a few.

As a young adult working as a bank teller, John befriended a local customer named Vernelle “Red” Irwin—a former stunt pilot, barnstormer, and corporate aviator. Red had first landed a surplus World War I Curtiss Jenny on his parents’ farm in Hallsville, Illinois, in 1928. The field would eventually become Red’s private runway, officially recognized by the FAA as “Hooterville Airport”—a tongue-in-cheek homage to the 1960s TV sitcom Green Acres.

Years later, John acquired Hooterville Airport and made it the base of operations for his fully restored World War II-era Boeing Stearman.

Read more about John Warner and Hooterville Airport in the upcoming Prairie Flyers of Central Illinois: A Century of Aviation in America’s Heartland, set for publication this summer by The History Press.