Alice Mary Gallagher

b. 19 April 1921, d. 18 August 1988
  • Alice Mary Gallagher was born on 19 April 1921.
  • She married Alfred Wilder Burnside Jr., son of Alfred Wilder Burnside and Fannie Kate Wood.
  • The following appeared on 15 September 1955 in The Dallas Morning News: A Marine reserve lieutenant colonel from Krum, Denton County, narrowly escaped death late Wednesday morning when his Navy blue F-9F7 Couger jet crashed onto the Naval Air Station on the shor of Mountain Creek Lake.
         The pilot, Lt. Col. Alfred W. Burnside Jr., 35, was extricated from the wreckage only after about 50 men lifted the left wing of the upside-down plane, permitting access to the critically injured pilot.
         Rushed to Veterans Administration Hospital at Lisbon, Colonel Burnside, a farmer and father of three children, fought for his life during the remainder of the day.
         Naval Air Station officers said the reserve pilot, who ws on a 2-week active duty training cruise, was coming in for a landing when his plane crashed about 500 feet west of the juncture of Cottonwood Creek and Mountain Creek Lake.
         "Ten more feet and he would have drowned inthe lake--we never would have got him out in time to save him," said E. L. Townley, assistant fire chief for the Naval Air Station and Hensley Field.
         The navy fighter jet struck the ground a glancing blow, strewed wreckage for 500 feet, then crashed upside-down into a wire fence at the water's edge.
         The right wing sheared off, and among the wreckage were the plane's machine guns, unloaded.
         Cause of the crash was undetermined by investigating officers at the scene.
         "The pilot wasn't flying in the established pattern," said one officer unofficially. "He was waved off by the control tower when he made his landing approach."
         Then Colonel Burnside, a 218-pound, 6-foot-3 World War II veteran, apparently failed to regain altitude. His powerful jet, landing gear down, struck the earth and missed a Navy garbate detail truck by only five feet. It hurtled 500 feet before coming to a final rest.
         "I had my back to the plane and just happened to turn around," said James Medlin, Navy sanitation employee. "It was coming right at me. I just stood there by the side of the truck. After it ws over I thought of some prayers."
         The truck driver, Thornton (Preacher) Alexander, who in extra hours is pastor of Lewisville's Church of God in Christ, said he stayed in the truck as the plane zoomed by. "It crashed 20 feet from us, and I drove the truck right off in case it exploded," he said.
         The injured pilot, Colonel Burnside, was born in Wichita Falls. He played basketball and competed in track at New Mexico Military Institute. In World War II as a Marine transport pilot, he flew mission to Iwo Jima, Guam and Okinawa. His plane Wednesday, the F-9F7 Couger jet, is a first-line navy fighter.
         His wife, Alice Mary Burnside, was notified at their farm home on Route I, Krum, by a Marine officer who drove from town to break the news. The house has no telephone. The couple has three children, Julia Ann, 9; Marilyn, 7; and Dennis Drew, 5.
  • Alice Mary Gallagher became a widow at the 10 July 1983 death of her husband Alfred Wilder Burnside Jr.
  • Alice Mary Gallagher died on 18 August 1988 at age 67 in Pinellas County, Florida.
  • She was interred at Royal Palm South Cemetery, Saint Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida.
  • Last Edited: 30 Nov 2013

Family: Alfred Wilder Burnside Jr. b. 9 August 1920, d. 10 July 1983