Orlee Lee Currier, son of Orlando (1887-1939) and Eugenia A. (Chainiere or Choiniere or Choirere) (1889-1953) Currier, was born 8 March 1911, Michigan. Orla graduated in 1929 from Okemos High School.
Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan) Tuesday 15 October 1929
Prize winners at the fifth annual Alaiedon Farmers' club fair, held at the Okemos school, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, were as follows:
Crop project and handiwork, ..........Orla Currier; animal project, ..........Orla Currier.
By 1939 Orla was living in California, married to a lady named Grace and working as a riveter for Cons Aircraft Corporation, San Diego. According to the 1940 US Federal Census for California, Orla was divorced. He continued to be an aircraft worker until moving back to the Lansing, Michigan area about 1950 where he was employed by Consumers Power Company. About 1950 Orla became referred to by name as Lee Currier.
Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan) Monday 24 August 1953
MARRIAGE LICENCES
Lee Currier, 42, of 912 W. Ionia st. and Dorothy Eyestone, 40, of 310 S. Foster ave.
Dorothy Surine Eyestone was born 30 March 1913, Eaton County, Michigan. She was a graduate of Eastern High School, Lansing, Ingham County. Dorothy married Dale Eyestone and had daughters Lynne and Wynne. The couple divorced. Lee and Dorothy married in 1953 and moved back to San Diego, California where Lee was again employed in the aircraft industry.
Dorothy died 7 November 1999, Oregon. Lee died 15 December 2006, Oregon. Lee was interred in Laurel Cemetery, Cave Junction, Josephine County, Oregon under a headstone engraved with a picture of a bi-plane.
Unknown source:
ORLEE CURRIER
Orlee L. Currier, 95, of Cave Junction, Ore., died Dec. 15, 2006, at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, Ore. Interment was at Laurel Cemetery in Cave Junction, Ore. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at Valley Evangelical Free Church in Cave Junction, Ore., where he attended.
He was a former resident of Lamar where he was instrumental in starting the development called Currier Acres.
He was born in Lansing, Mich., to Orlando and Eugena Currier, was on the high school track team and became a state champion. At 14, he went to work for Michigan Airways, was a stunt pilot and became the 874th licensed aircraft mechanic in the United States at the age of 16. He worked in the aircraft industry in Washington and in a missile site in Roswell, N. M.
He served in World War II in the Army Air Corps as a belly gunner in a B-17 bomber flying missions over Europe. He worked on the aircrafts of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg and Howard Hughes. He was also a building contractor and real estate developer and was preceded in death in 1999 by his wife, Dorothy Surine Currier.
He is survived by two stepdaughters.