Fiske Hanley II

1920 - 2020

Fiske Hanley II FORT WORTH--Fiske Hanley II, 100, died Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020, on the skilled nursing floor at Trinity Terrace with his window overlooking First Presbyterian Church, where he was confirmed in 1931 and was the congregation's longest serving member. FUNERAL: 10 a.m. Saturday in the Independence Chapel at Greenwood Mausoleum. Visitation for friends and family will occur there one hour prior to the service. He was born in Brownwood, Texas, on Jan. 14, 1920, as the oldest child of C.W. Hanley, a petroleum landman from Pennsylvania, and Esther Flynn, a Brown County clerk. He was the namesake of his paternal grandfather. The family moved shortly thereafter to Wichita Falls before settling in Fort Worth in 1923. They lived on College Avenue in Ryan Place, and he graduated from Paschal in 1938. In 1937, he drove with two friends to Michigan where he flew his model airplane and won the Art Oakley Trophy. That year, his plane also won the Texaco National Championship. He entered North Texas Agricultural College (now UTA) before attending Texas Tech and receiving a degree in mechanical engineering on May 31, 1943. Later that day, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps (now Air Force) at the Lubbock County Courthouse and was immediately placed onto a train bound for basic training. Texas Tech later honored him as a distinguished alumnus. While there, he was a Saddle Tramp and served as president of Socii, which soon after became Sigma Nu. After finishing Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and served as a flight engineer on a B-29 Superfortress while flying bombing raids from Tinian Island. He flew on the infamous fire-bombing raid over Tokyo on March 9, 1945, and on March 27, his plane encountered anti-aircraft fire, and he parachuted and fell into a rice paddy in northern Japan. He was taken as a prisoner, moved by train to a Tokyo police facility and imprisoned, fiercely interrogated and tortured until his release in August, 1945. He lost almost half of his body weight. Flak fragments remained in his legs throughout his life. In 1947, he married American Airlines stewardess, Betty Baker, in Tulsa, Okla., and they remained devoted to one another until her death in May, 1992. Later that year, he married Ann Dana, and they shared a love of spanning the globe until her death in 2004. Early the following year, he married Geraldine Trahey and tended to her until she died in 2013. Within a few months, he wed Peggy Doty, they divorced after two years. He joked that batting .750 in his marriages should warrant being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Upon returning home from World War II, he joined Convair's Fort Worth plant (now Lockheed) in late 1945 as a flight engineer. In 1959, after his maiden flight on a Convair B-58 nearly descended into Tampa Bay, Betty convinced him to become a design engineer in the plant, where he remained until his retirement in 1989. He spent the remainder of his life authoring two books and touring locally and internationally to provide lectures. His first book was titled "History of the 504th Bomb Group" followed by "Accused American War Criminal." He was preceded in death by all his siblings, Alice Giles of Midland, C.W. Hanley Jr. "Juney" of Sherman, Alvin "Doc" Hanley of Midland and Edna Mae Jones of Fort Worth; in addition to son-in-law, Heiko Meyer of Wedel, Germany. SURVIVORS: Children, Barbara Meyer of Wedel, Germany, Diane Keller and husband, Mike, of Keller, Fiske "Tom" Hanley III and wife, Diane, of Fort Worth; and grandchildren, Tommy Meyer and wife, Tina, and their son, Benjamin of Hamburg, Germany, Christian Meyer of Hamburg, Monica Keller Hanks and husband, Steve, of The Woodlands, Fiske Hanley IV of Fort Worth and Anna Grace Hanley of Washington, D.C.