Hillbilly Highway
How postwar migration transformed Aero’s workforce and culture
Between 1920 and 1970, millions of people migrated from Appalachian states to industrial cities in the Midwest. In what is now called the “hillbilly highway,” workers moved north to find better opportunities than those available in their rural hometowns. The influx of new workers, which included talented seamstresses and industrious problem solvers, transformed Aero’s workforce and culture. Here are a few of their stories.
In the mid 1950s, Aero welcomed a wave of employees from Tennessee and Kentucky. Many of the new workers came from Bell County, Kentucky, in the southeastern corner of the state where Kentucky borders Tennessee and Virginia, a location famous for the Cumberland Gap.
As part of the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield, the county’s rugged terrain, with thick forests and deep valleys, offered plenty of dangerous jobs in the mines, but not much else. Many workers moved north seeking new opportunities.
Some of the workers seeking opportunities beyond the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield found them in Indianapolis, at Aero Industries.
Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Photographs of the Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry, compiled 1946 – 1947.
For many of the new employees who moved north, Aero provided both a workplace and a community.
James Adams found a new role cutting canvas tarps.
Top seamstresses Ruby Harris, Troy Ford, Roberta “Bertie” Rice and Francis Meadors made names for themselves with their sewing skills by day, when they weren’t busy with their other job—plucking chickens. Aero workers share a legacy of resilience and dedication to hard work.
Troy Ford, one of Aero’s early tarp sewers.
Wayland “Fuzz” Helton may never have finished grammar school, but he had a lot of smarts. He was one of 15 children born to the Helton family in the small town of Stoney Fork in Bell County, Kentucky. Six of his siblings joined him in Indianapolis. At Aero, he became responsible for cutting and shaping tarps and getting them out the door.
Fuzz Helton with Minnie Hooker’s son, Boyd Warren.
Minnie Hooker was born in Blanche, an even smaller town within Bell County. She arrived at Aero in 1965 with her husband, Herman, and twin sons, Boyd and Floyd, two adult children from her first marriage to a coal miner who died tragically in a mining accident.
Floyd and Boyd would work for Fuzz Helton in the tarp department.
Minnie and Herman Hooker arrived at Aero in 1965.
The Hookers started the process of gluing nylon panels together. This process eliminated the need to sew seams, which could produce holes in the canvas. To fix the tiny holes, Herman developed a special upright light table. This apparatus was mounted to the wall with the canvas tarps hung like a curtain in front. The inspector rode up and down in a buggy, repairing the pinpricks where light shone through.
Aero workers laying out tarps for the glue process.
Irene Blankenship moved from Scottsville, Kentucky, bringing her family along with her. Irene was a popular matriarch in the sewing department, where she worked for over 24 years before retiring in 1987. She, along with Minnie Hooker and Margaret Rice, made up the Specialty Sewing Department.
Two of Irene’s five daughters married into the Aero family. Her daughter Sheila married shipping supervisor Keith Warden. Daughter Ramona married Minnie’s son Floyd.
Irene Blankenship with Francis Meadors.
Founded by family, Aero continues to be a welcoming community where people find their place, no matter where they come from.
A company dinner at the Merrill Street plant, 1960.
During the mid 20th century, orders for Aero’s innovative neoprene tarps outpaced demand for traditional cotton canvas tarps. Since neoprene tarps seams are glued instead of sewed, expert seamstresses — including…more