What did it cost to bury a loved one in 1959? This Enga-Billman ad in the Minneapolis Star promised a “finer funeral” – including a cloth-covered casket and professional embalming – for just $195. That’s less than $1,400 in today’s dollars. You can barely plant a cat in a decent pet cemetery for that price these days.

To dispel any doubts about the quality of the service, Enga-Billman invited folks to look the place over, though it’s unclear if kids were welcome or whether popcorn or balloons were part of the open house. Probably no kids, and just coffee. Johnny, get out of that casket!

Some of the type here is small – sorry about that, but it’s tiny in the original as well – so I’ll reproduce the choicest paragraph here:

Our Prices Include:

Casket, embalming of body, cosmetology and hairdressing, plastic duro-surgery when necessary, hearse for funeral, flower car, wooden cemetery box, use of chapel, use of Catholic equipment, funeral services at Enga-Billman chapel of church of your choice within a radius of 25 miles, general assistance with memorial records, flower acknowledgements, insurance forms, U.S. Government forms, services of professional staff in accordance with the highest standards of conducting funerals and skilled attendants. Concrete box, cemetery charges, clergy, music and obituary notices not included.

Owner Leonard Enga took considerable heat for touting prices in ads like this one.

The “aeromedical” expert quoted in this Minneapolis Tribune story was no fringe figure in the space race. In 1954, Col. John P. Stapp became known as the “fastest human on Earth” after piloting a rocket sled to a then-world record land speed of 632 miles per hour. He was a hands-on pioneer in studying the effects of rapid acceleration and deceleration on humans, and is credited with coining the term “Murphy’s Law.” Plus, we can claim him as one of our own, in a way that only Minnesotans can: Stapp, who was born in Brazil to Baptist missionaries from Texas, earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1944.

Healthy, Intelligent, Legless Man
Called Ideal Space Traveler

By JACK WILSON
Minneapolis Tribune
Staff Correspondent

	Col. Stapp at 0 mph

WASHINGTON – A smart, experienced, husky man with both legs amputated would be a good prospect for pilot of America’s first manned satellite, an air force officer working on the program said Friday.

Col. John P. Stapp, chief of the aeromedical laboratory at Wright air development center, Dayton, Ohio, made this suggestion informally during a space travel conference here.

“It is just an idea that occurred to me when I was thinking about the requirements for space travel, and what sort of man best meet them,” he said.

“A man’s legs represent about 27 per cent of his total weight. And they wouldn’t be of any use to him in a space capsule.

“If you took a man who had the heart and lungs for a 180-pound body, and amputated both of his legs, he would have just that much less tissue to consume oxygen and contribute to the weight of the capsule.

	Col. Stapp at 600-plus mph

“And having full-sized heart and lungs, he would have somewhat more reserve strength and energy than a man with both legs.”

Stapp said he had no intention of looking for legless volunteers for satellite travel, but he had the qualifications for the first space man pretty well mapped out.

“He will have to be a man who is highly trained to make the kind of observations and gather the kind of data we want,” he said. “It will cost about $3,000 per pound of man and capsule to get him into orbit, and we want to get our money’s worth.

“I’m 48, and I’m realistic enough to know that that’s too old,” he said. And indicating his comfortable girth, he reminded questioners of the $3,000 per pound cost estimate.

Northwest Airlines hired its first stewardesses – now known as flight attendants – in March 1930. In the beginning, these “feminine aids” had to be registered nurses, a requirement that was relaxed at the start of World War II.

	Dorothy Stumph

Stewardess Service Goes
With NWA’s New Planes

First Feminine Aids
Represent Minneap-
Olis, Chicago

The new Douglas DC-3, 21-passenger skyliner, placed in service by Northwest Airlines on its Chicago-Twin Cities run, features inauguration of stewardess service by NWA.

The first stewardesses to be selected represent the terminal cities of the DC-3’s maiden voyage to the northwest. They are Miss Virginia Johnson of Minneapolis and Miss Dorothy C. Stumph of Chicago.

Miss Stumph has been an airline stewardess for 2½ years, flying out of Chicago to New York and Cheyenne, Wyo. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Miss Stumph studied nursing in Toledo.

Five feet, two inches tall, Miss Stumph is an active young woman. Her hobbies are photography and outdoor sports. When not on duty, she may be found around the airports, photographing the planes on which she flies while on duty.

Miss Johnson studied nursing at St. Andrew’s hospital, Minneapolis. She practiced nursing at that hospital until she joined the NWA personnel. Five feet, one inch tall, she studies art and music during her leisure hours, and is an ardent sportswoman.

For the stewardesses’ uniforms, Northwest Airlines has selected tailored brown suits with topcoat to match.

Coffee, tea or earplugs: Organist Nan Bergin serenaded luxury-class passengers aboard Northwest Airlines’ New York-Chicago-Minneapolis-St. Paul flight in November 1959. (Associated Press photo)