C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 29,1981
international title 906$ to
local Hying Farmer Queen
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
On the evening of July 29, Wilbur
Marstellar received a telephone
call from Calgary, Alberta
province, Canada.
On the line was a representative
of the judges of the International
Flying Farmer queen competition,
being held in Calgary as part of the
organization’s 36th annual con
vention.
Nancy Marstellar, Wilbur’s
talented wife and the Pennsylvania
Flying Farmers’ queen, would be
crowned the international queen
the next night. Could he come?
In spite of the tip-off by the
judges, the New Park R 1 gram and
livestock farmer was unable to
make the reservations to fly two
thousand miles to the coronation.
“But he sent me red roses,”
fondly remembers Nancy, sur
prised for the second time that
memorable night when she was
told that her family back home
already had heard the stunning
news.
Nancy won her title over 31 other
contestants from across North
America. As the new reigning lady
of the International Flying Far
mers Association, she’ll be a
spokesman for the family-oriented
programs of rural enthusiasts,
with several thousand members
from Canada, Mexico and the
United States.
“It looks like we’re going to have
a ‘Hi’ and ‘Goodbye’ year,” says
the new queen, after reviewing a
jammed schedule lined up for her
over the next several months.
Beginning with a “fly-m” to
Pittsburgh and an appearance at
Ag Progress Days this past week,
Nancy is scheduled to promote the
Flying Farmers during at least 16
state conventions.
The Delmarva meeting,
scheduled at Ocean City,
Maryland, in September, will be
the first on the circuit. Later, her
travels, will take the flying farm
wife from Saskatachewan,
Canada, to Mexico, from a
workshop at Nashville, Tennessee
to Pennsylvania’s own convention
at Bird-m-Hand, and possibly even
to an appearance at the Tri-State
session held by the Flying Far
mer members of Washington,
Oregon and Idaho.
The Marstellars have been
members of the Flying Fanners
organization for nearly five years,
although Wilbur began piloting a
private plane in 1953. A Piper
The family that plays together... Margaret has passed on her love and talent
for music to Laura and Oarren, joining their mother in an informal jam session.
Cherokee 160 is hangared in one ot
the Marstellar Brothers’ farm
sheds, adjacent to the trimmed
grass landing strip bordering tall,
lush, ripening corn fields
“We don’t fly'as much as we’d
like,” admits Nancy. Although
she’s not a licensed private pilot,
Nancy has earned "land it” status.
“Land it” qualifiers take a course
that includes a required number of
hours of air and ground school
time, radio and map studies,
emergency landing procedure
knowledge and tune at the con
trols.
“I’d like to continue studymg to
get my own license,” Nancy hopes,
“But not this year” Although she
has spent many hours learning
basics of flying under Wilbur’s
instruction, only air time spent
under a qualified, licensed in
structor counts toward passing the
state’s private pilot exams.
Nancy is quick to emphasize that
the Flying Farmers is a family
organization, with programs
geared to all ages and special
encouragement lent to the
numerous youth members taking
up flying. Both the Marstellar
children, Darren, who’s 10, and 8-
year-old Laura, share their
parents’ love of travel in the
family’s Cherokee and first
became airborne when they were
mere weeks old.
Most meetings of the chapters
are held as “fly-ins,” and are a
mixture of education and
fellowship, usually hosted by
member families and often
featuring flown-m covered dish
dinners. If the weather is
favorable, most members arrive
by air; but if even a chance of a
storm threatens, these safety-first
farm fliers are quick to trade the
rudder for a ground-level steering
wheeled vehicle.
About 80 members flew to York
County for a recent meeting hosted
at the Marstellar’s farm, and
during another session this spring
the group toured the helicopter
landing and weather facilities at
Indiantown Gap military base.
Named the Pennsylvania Flying
Farmer Queen at the March
convention in Reading, Nancy has
already represented the Keystone
agriculture pilots at both the New
York state and South Carolina
confabs.
As part of the week-long judging
for the international crown, each
contestant was required to share
something of her life and
montage of family history was created by Queen pageant. Going one step further, she
Nancy Marstellar for use in her presentation to included a poster depicting the Keystone
the judges of the International Flying Farmer state.
background by speaking to the
judging group about a family
poster she had designed. Nancy
also added a visual ot Penn
sylvania for further information on
her heritage.
Nancy especially remembers
one “breakfast” held during the
judging sessions. It began at 7
a.m., and continued on through two
o’clock in the afternoon. Each of
the 32 state or regional queens was
given five minutes to share with
the group information about
themselves and their farm
families.
Another requirement was that
each contestant bring along some
small gift to share with the other
entrants. Nancy chose a “love
light,” a handcrafted pottery
candle holder, about four inches
high and designed to hold a small
votive candle. Around the top of
the holder are many small holes,
allowing the candle’s glow to send
tiny shafts ot light out through the
pottery.
Since much ot the judging em
phasis was on the contestant’s
accomplishments and talents,
Nancy’s musical background and
numerous community activities
compiled an impressive resume.
A Lebanon Valley college
graduate, with a BS. degree in
music, majoring in voice and
piano, Nancy also earned her
elementary teaching certificate.
For 11 years, she taught music in
two of Southeastern School
District’s elementary schools.
“it gets washed a lot more often than the family car,” quips Nancy of the
spotless white-trimmed-in-red Pipe Cherokee that carries these Flying Farmers
over the Pennsylvania farmlands. Wilbur and Nancy took both Darren and Laura
on their first flights when the youngsters were just weeks old.
Now an elementary and music
substituit tor the district, she says
that’s "almost a tull-time job,” tor
which she’ll likely be less available
during the upcoming school
session.
Nancy also sees education from
the parent point ot view, serving as
president of the Fawn Area
Elementary parent-teacher
organization. Her enthusiasm
overflows into the Music Boosters
club and she’s served as a director
for the Southern Community
Concert organization.
The bulk of Nancy’s abundant
musical abilities goes to serve
Centre Presbyterian Church, just a
few hundred yards from the front
door of the gracious farm home.
An accomplished player of the
organ, piano and guitar, Nancy
directs Centre’s childrens’ choir of
about 18 members and a 20-voice
youth choir, and sings with the
adult choir as well. She heads the
church’s annual Bible School and
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leads a weekly Sunday School
hymnsmg.
As do many teachers, Nancy
continues studying in her field of
education.
“1 still take lessons on the guitar,
and wish I’d learned how to play
that a lot sooner,” she reflects.
“It’s much easier to carry a guitar
from classroom to classroom than
it is to move a piano.”
While Nancy’s favorite age
group to work with in teaching is
children, she prefers not to give
private music instruction to her
own two youngsers. Instead,
Darren and Laura take their
lessons elsewhere.
"I think you tend to expect tod
much from your own children, arid'
become impatient with them too
easily,” she philosophizes.
With family roots deep in the
rich heritage ot southern York
County, Nancy grew up just a
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