MENDOTA- Carol L. Swope, 72, of Mendota passed away Aug. 27, 2017 in Alden Debes Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Rockford....
Two days before the crash that killed him at 26, Redding had recorded the vocals for aching ballad (Sittinâ On) The Dock of the Bay. Four miles outside Madison, Wisconsin, December 10, 1967, hampered by low cloud cover and cold weather, the eight-seater private plane carrying 26-year-old soul star Otis Redding hit trouble.
Otis Air National Guard Base is named for pilot, flight surgeon, and eminent Boston City Hospital surgeon, Lt. Frank Jesse Otis. He was a member of the 101st Observation Squadron who was killed on 11 January 1937 when his Douglas O-46A crashed at Hennepin, Illinois, while on a cross-country training mission.