Obituary for Florence Breitkreutz

Florence Breitkreutz, 21, formerly of West Salem, WI, died in a military plane crash on Oct 31, 1954, over the Atlantic Ocean.

Florence was a 1952 graduate of West Salem High School and joined the US Navy in Nov 1953. Following basic training she was trained as a flight attendant with her first duty station at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland. On Oct 30,1954, she was assigned as a crew member on a US Navy Lockheed Super Constellation on a flight from Patuxent River NAS, MD, to Port Lyautey, Morocco, via Lajes AFB, Azores. Contact was lost with the aircraft 350 miles off the Maryland Coast. A four-day search provided no signs of wreckage or survivors. Forty-two passengers and crew members died.

Florence was born May 1, 1933, in Princeton, Green Lake County, WI to William and Ella (Zeatlow) Breitkreutz, the youngest of six children. While attending West Salem High School she lived with the Donald D. and Lois Ann Miller family in Barre Mills, WI, and also during that time had a special longtime mentorship with Rachel Gullickson of West Salem. Florence predeceased her parents and five siblings Ida, Fred, Adeline, Arnold, and Lawrence, who are now all deceased.

A military memorial marker will be dedicated in Florence's memory at Hamilton Cemetery, 850 W. Franklin, West Salem on Saturday, October 10, 2026 at 3:30 PM. Pastor Jonathon Schmidt will officiate with military honors provided by the West Salem American Legion and the US Navy Funeral Honor Guard. Memorials may be addressed to the WS American Legion.