Delta Airlines Boeing 727 with Flight Attendant (Delta Burke) circa early 1970s

Since I began my multi-year venture in Tampa photographic history, I have met hundreds of interesting people who share an appreciation for our city. I’ve seen tens of thousands of images and have had the opportunity to write stories about their content. I love the field of photo archaeology and have come to believe that every picture has a story. I recently received this image in the mail. It was sent to the wrong address, but USPS was on their game. It came in an envelope with no return address. It is a wonderful image of a Delta Boeing 727, with a beautiful flight attendant at the center.

Trying to put a date on the image is challenging. After Delta Air Lines merged with Northeast Airlines in 1972, it began flying Boeing 727s. Also, looking over the history of Delta Airline flight attendant uniforms, her uniform is consistent with that same timeframe. So, I would imagine this image was taken in the early 1970s. The back of the photo is stamped Leep Zelones. Leopold “Leep” Zelones was a photographer for the Niagara Falls Gazette starting at the age of 15. He earned a Master’s degree in photography and served as a photographic instructor in the Naval Air Reserve for 8 years during the Korean War. In 1964, he moved to Orlando and worked for the Orlando Sentinel briefly before opening another commercial photography business there. Major clients included Disney World, SeaWorld, and other commercial ventures. He was in photography for 67 years before a brief battle with Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer took his life in 2014.

Inquiring about the woman in the photo on social media, it turns out this is Emmy-nominated actress, producer, and author Delta Burke. She was associated with the airline, but there was no information on whether her name matched the airline’s name.

The photograph arrived with a newspaper clipping of the poem "The Tourist," written by Mrs. Emma M’Donald. If my reasoning is correct, Mrs. M’Donald was alive in the early 20th century, and another of her poems was printed in the Tampa Tribune in 1918. It is a nice adjunct to the photograph!

© Chip Weiner. Old Tampa Photos