Garrick, Billie Clair Welsh
As the daughter of a World War I aviator and Ford Tri-Motor aircraft test pilot, Billie Clair Garrick grew up around airplanes and was often the envy of classmates when she got to fly from her father's Kansas City headquarters to Hollywood for a weekend jaunt.
She loved the adventure of flying and became a stewardess during the early days of commercial airlines. She went on to marry a man who became deputy counsel to then-President Ronald Reagan and was the mother of local Assemblyman Martin Garrick, but the former Billie Clair Welsh forged her own path as an independent career woman in the 1940s.
She served with the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, and later had stints as a model and fashion designer, her son said.
Mrs. Garrick died of complications from pneumonia Feb. 18 in Oceanside. She was 88.
A staunch Republican, she loved to talk politics and took pride in having been a career woman who didn't marry until she was 30, said her friend Marie Joyce.
"She was very opinionated and very conservative. She had a career before she had a family, and she felt she had the best of both worlds," Joyce said.
Mrs. Garrick enjoyed talking about her years as a stewardess, as flight attendants were called at the time, and was part of group of retired stewardesses who met regularly for many years.
She was born Sept. 6, 1921, in Kansas City, Mo., to Sarah Ellen Baker and St. Clair D. "Steve" Welsh. She grew up in Kansas City and Los Angeles and did some modeling before starting her first airline job with Western Airlines. She left the airline to pursue her dream of being a dress designer and enrolled in a two-year design course with the Pasadena Playhouse. She launched a design career in Hollywood after graduating, but her lack of commercial success spurred her to return to the aviation industry.
She later told stories of working for airlines that lasted only one or two flights before going bankrupt. She worked for the now-defunct Viking, North American and Los Angeles Air Service. She also worked for the Flying Tigers airline, which moved troops and supplies during the Korean War. She eventually became chief stewardess and designed their uniforms.
In 1951, she married Robert Garrick, a public and government relations consultant who later became a rear admiral in the Navy Reserve. The Garricks were longtime supporters of the Republican Party, and Robert and Martin Garrick both worked on Reagan's presidential campaign.
The Garricks had owned an avocado and orange ranch in Bonsall since the 1970s and made it their principal residence about 20 years ago. Mrs. Garrick enjoyed growing roses and often donated the fresh flowers to her church. She was a member of Bonsall Community Church, Republican Women Federated and Daughters of the American Revolution.
In addition to her son, Mrs. Garrick is survived by a daughter, Patti of Knoxville, Tenn., and four grandchildren. Her husband died in 2003.
Private services were held Feb. 25.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Navy League of San Diego, Homefront San Diego, 2115 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101.
Published in San Diego Union-Tribune on March 12, 2010