Though she was fond of shoes, Marion Florsheim was not part of the Florsheim shoe family empire, and didn’t need to be to famous. Her passion was aviation, and as one of The Original 28 members of the WASPs – Women Air Force Service Pilots (a band of roughly 1,000 women flyers that served as a home front Army auxiliary during World War II) – she was famous in her own right. The pom-pommed bedroom slippers she was seen wearing on airstrips helped make her standout, but without established uniforms, the pilots dressed in whatever they wanted, the only required item being a hairnet because Washington brass worried that long hair would hinder flight training.

Photo that appeared in Flying Magazine from August 1943 shows Florsheim wearing the “stratotog” suit she designed for flying

In an article compiled by Steve Tillotson with Lyall Payne in 2014, it was reported that Marion was a bit different, staying, as she did, in hotels, not barracks, with a huge collection of clothes, shoes, and at least two Afghan Hounds by her side because Marion was an Afghan Hound fancier. In 1944, her dogs were featured on the cover of the hugely popular magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, as well as on the cover of Life Magazine in 1945 and assorted canine publications (to see those covers, go here).

For a marvelous article on the WASPS, read this.

Thumbnail Image: Marion Foster standing with International Champion Rana of Charman, a dog she exhibited at an all breed show at Memorial Auditorium in 1943