State of the Arts: Remembering the crash at Orly

By Beth Malone, Co-Founder Dashboard Co-Op

Milton Bevington Sr. had flown to Paris to surprise his wife, Betsy, who had been on a monthlong European art expedition with 106 of Atlanta’s most prominent artists, cultural activists, and political and civic leaders.

On June 3, 1962, Milton stood in the terminal at Orly Air Field watching as Betsy’s plane sped down the runway — the couple never flew together, something she insisted upon after they had children. At takeoff, the plane’s trim motor failed. As the nose rotated to the sky, the body of the plane remained on the tarmac. Within seconds, jet fuel sprayed forth and the fuselage erupted into flames, killing 130 passengers, including Betsy.

“Everyone in Atlanta was impacted,” says the Bevington’s granddaughter Rickey, a radio host for Georgia Public Broadcasting. “In seconds, people who volunteered their energy, passion and spirit to Atlanta’s art community were lost.”

To honor those who died, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff donated millions to fund construction of the Woodruff Arts Center, now one of Atlanta’s most highly regarded art spaces.

“My dad said that the greatest thing to come out of the Orly crash was the Woodruff Arts Center,” says Rickey. “Immediately following the accident, money and support flooded the city, but as time passed there was nothing.”

While the tragedy gave rise to institutions such as the Woodruff, the loss of 106 of Atlanta’s most powerful art patrons has had a lasting impact on the city’s cultural development. Forty-eight years after the crash at Orly, a prominent, consistent voice for the arts has failed to emerge at a legislative level in Atlanta, and Georgia, for that matter.