As the nation honors those who gave their lives in service to our country, the Bluff City has its fair share of veterans to honor on this day as well, one of whom was Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr., who was born in Grenada, Mississippi on December 16, 1920 but grew up in Memphis.
Weathers was a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and would go on to serve in the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, naming his plane the “Spirit of Beale Street” to bring a piece of his hometown with him during his illustrious military career.
Following the war, Weathers would return to Memphis and go on to become the first African American Air Traffic Controller at Memphis International Airport, bringing with him such notable accolades as rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Weathers would ultimately pass away on October 15, 2011 at the age of 90 in Tucson, Arizona, but the Bluff City proudly remembered the legacy of its hometown hero by renaming its VA Medical Center to the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr. VA Medical Center on July 24, 2023.
