A COLORFUL LEGACY FOR STUBBINGS LATE LEGEND'S TALES SURVIVE.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Special to the Daily News

The engines are cut, the chocks are in place, the caps are on the lenses, the cameras are tucked safely away and the stogies are all snuffed out.

Photographer, pilot and local legend Frank Stubbings went to his final retirement when he died Monday in a hospital in Lake View Terrace at age 87.

Stubbings leaves behind a pictorial legacy of more than five decades of Antelope Valley history and the memory of his wit, charm and enviable intestinal fortitude. He was an unequaled storyteller.

Like this story, recalled for an interviewer in 1995:

``There I was cruising along in my 1936 Porterfield two-seater, taking aerial pictures of a Fillmore forest fire. It was 1951 and my first time to fly over a fire. Nobody told me when you fly over flames like that you hit a lot of up and down bumps. I was smoking my usual cigar at the time and when I suddenly hit a good one it jerked me so hard that my head hit the roof and that stogie went flying right out of my mouth.''

Stubbings gave up trying to find the cigar after a while and went back to photographing the fire. After he finished his photography and flew off, he realized he could still smell smoke. He looked behind him: the rear seat was on fire.

``It took some doing but I reached back and yanked that seat out and threw that baby out into a riverbed about three miles from the burning scene,'' he said.

Stubbings flew all the way to Littlerock Dam before turning around and coming home to Lancaster the back way, ``just in case anybody had been watching me. It's against all regulations to throw anything incendiary into an already burning zone, you know.''

Born in Detroit on Oct. 22, 1917, Stubbings went into the military in 1943, during World War II. He learned photography while he was in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Sent to Europe, he established his own studio and darkroom and went into business for himself. He made other servicemen his customers by selling them photos he took of them.

``I also had a bar. I could trade two cartons of cigarettes for five barrels of beer.''

When he came home to be mustered out in 1945, he brought with him an enlarger from Germany that remained his favorite throughout his photography career. He came to Antelope Valley from Los Angeles the same year, equipped only with photo gear and a tent.

It wasn't long before he made a name for himself by going around to outlying ranches and taking photos of the ranchers' children.

``I never had anyone tell me no. I still have baby pictures of some of our prominent citizens,'' Stubbings recalled in 1995.

Stubbings opened his first local studio in late 1946 on Lancaster Boulevard at Beech Avenue, then eight months later moved to a Beech Avenue shop where he would stay for nearly 50 years.

He sold photos to local and Los Angeles newspapers and a print shop. Aerial photography was his specialty and he estimated in 1995 he had 20,000 negatives on file.

In the mid-1990s he moved his shop three doors down. He kept operating there until this summer, when he finally decided to call it quits. His legions of friends flocked to buy his prints as he closed his shop.

Stubbings had another story to tell about the airplane whose back seat he set on fire with his cigar.

``One weekend while I owned it somebody borrowed it from me and while it was in flight the right side came apart. They stuck it back together with masking tape and didn't tell me,'' he said.

``Not long after they returned it I invited an Edwards executive up and, as we were flying along, the whole right side fell off. Needless to say, the Edwards guy was fit to be tied,'' he continued.

``I kept looking around for a place to land but we finally made it back to Lancaster. I put it down on the runway at Lancaster Airport, on Avenue I and 10th Street West. I never saw a man so happy. He was really glad to get down in one piece.''

Services are scheduled at 10 a.m. today at the Lancaster Elks Lodge, 240 E. Ave. K.

Survivors include his wife, Betty, and children, stepchildren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster and Palmdale have been announced. All meals include bread and margarine and coffee, tea or milk for a suggested donation of $2.

Monday: Hot roast beef sandwich, soup, mashed potatoes, winter squash, marinated salad, cheesecake.

Tuesday: Fish filet, au gratin potatoes, stewed tomatoes, egg drop soup, creamy coleslaw, gelatin with fruit.

Wednesday: Roast turkey, bread dressing, peas and carrots, marinated beets, orange.

Thursday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, spinach, soup, tossed salad, peaches.

Friday: Barbecue chicken salad, macaroni salad, orange juice, tapioca pudding.

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Photo:

(color) Photographer Frank Stubbings poses for a shot in 1995. The World War II veteran passed away on Monday.

Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News