Whitney Straight [SEP] mother
Whitney Straight
Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight, CBE, MC, DFC (6 November 1912 – 5 April 1979) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, businessman, and a member of the prominent Whitney family of the United States.
Early life.
Born in New York City, Whitney Straight was the son of Major Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918) and heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968). He was almost six years old when his father died in France of influenza during the great epidemic while
was William Collins Whitney, the United States Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration, and her mother was Flora Payne, the daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio and sister of Col. Oliver Hazard Payne. The Straights moved first to Beijing, then, having adjudged China too unsafe after the Chinese Revolution, back to the United States in 1912. Together, Willard and Dorothy had:
- Whitney Willard Straight (1912–1979)
- Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914–2001)
- Michael Whitney Straight (1916–2004