Max Jacob Woolley was born december 19, 1916, on a homestead about 10 miles northeast of Ryegate, Montana, in the son of Max O. and Mary Ellen (Gregg) Woolley. The family moved to Ryegate in 1925, when Max senior became undersheriff of Golden Valley County.
Max graduated from Ryegate High School in 1936 and enrolled in Montana State University, majoriing in music and playing trombone in the Bobcat Band. He was drafted into the Army in May of 1942, and entered flight training. His outfit, the 384th Fighter Squadron, was assigned to an airbase in England, flying missions over Europe. On one mission his plane was hit by German anti aircraft fire. He bailed out and parachuted into German occupied Belgium. A Belgian family rescued him and hid him in their attic from June to September 1944 when the American forces arrived.
On his return to the United States in 1944, he married Blanche Brown , whom he had met on his way to his flight training school in California two years before. Max entered the Chouinard Art Institute and Blanche set up a beauty salon for Hollywood actresses. After graduation Max went to work as an artist for an advertising agency in San Francisco for several years before becoming free-lance. As of 2008 he was living in Hagerman, Idaho.
From the description of Max J. Woolley reminiscence, 2003. (Montana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 276415094
