09/25/2026
Today is National Comic Book Day — and we have an aviation story worthy of a superhero.
But this hero was very real — and she was from Knoxville, Tennessee.
Mary Frances “Frankie” Housley (October 12, 1926 – January 14, 1951) was the lone flight attendant aboard National Airlines Flight 83 when the Douglas DC-4 crashed while landing at Philadelphia International Airport.
With the aircraft on fire, Frankie helped passengers release their seat belts and led 10 people to safety. Rather than remain outside, the 24-year-old flight attendant went back into the burning aircraft in an attempt to save an infant. She never came back out.
Frankie sacrificed her own life trying to save others.
Her courage captured national attention, and just months later her story was told in the September 1951 issue of New Heroic Comics #68. The story, appropriately titled “Supreme Sacrifice,” featured Frankie’s heroism — and she appeared on the comic book’s cover.
New Heroic Comics told stories not of fictional superheroes with extraordinary powers, but of real people whose courage made them heroes.
On National Comic Book Day, we thought this remarkable piece of aviation history deserved another look.
Take a few minutes to look through the original comic pages we’re sharing. Seventy-five years later, the story of Knoxville’s Frankie Housley is still one worth telling.
