Page 16 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2025

COAST NOTES
Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum Gala Honors Resilience in Flight
Past Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum Gala.
The Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum will celebrate five years with
a gala on October 3, 6 to 9 p.m., at the museum on Pass Road in Gulfport. With a theme of ‘Ascending Together,’ the event will honor resilience in flight.
“We celebrated the museum with our first gala called ‘Come Fly with Me’ in November 2021, celebrating our first year since opening the museum in October 2020,” says Executive Director Francisco Gonzalez. “We have had other events
at the museum, including a tribute to Roland Weeks in 2024, however this is our five year Anniversary Gala.”
The gala, which will be cocktail
attire, will have music, food, a cash bar, silent auction and live auction items. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Guests will have an opportunity to walk the entire museum and see the exhibits.
“This event is very special because we are celebrating our 5th year since
opening, but we also plan to unveil a life- size statue of John C. Robinson, along with several busts to almost complete our Hall of Heroes,” Gonzalez says. “It will be an exciting night because people get to see all that we have accomplished since the opening, including expanding to the second floor where the Hall of Heroes Gallery is located.”
Board member Rosemary Roosa praises the museum, its creativity and the fiscal responsibility that have gone into making the museum what it is today. “I’m sure we’ll be celebrating many more galas in the years ahead.”
The museum was built under the direction of the 501c3 organization called the John C. Robinson Brown
Condor Association. The Board of that association manages all aspects of the museum. Robinson, a Gulfport native, was the first African-American pilot to ever fight in combat in the Ethiopian war against Fascist Benito Mussolini in 1935 and 1936.
16 | September 2025
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum Exhibit.
John C. Robinson.
story by Lynn Lofton photos courtesy of the Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum
Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum
429 Pass Rd., Gulfport 601.299.2816 | www.msaviationmuseum.org