POWERS WINS DIVORCE SUIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400090020-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 27, 1999
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 17, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

BALTINIORR SUN, jAN 17 1963
Approved For Release 1999/09/17: CIA-RDP75-00
'SOWERS WINS
DIVORCE SUIT
Wife of Ex-U-2 Pilot Gets
$5,000 Alimony Settlement
Milledgeville, Ga., Jan. 16 IM-
Francis Gary Powers, former U-2
pilot whose imprisonment in Rus-
sia brought international compli-
cations, was granted a divorce
today.
Powers, 33, charged his 28-
year-old wife Barbara was guilty
of habitual intoxication and said
she cursed and abused him with-
out cause.
Mrs. Powers, whom he mar-
ried in 1955, asked alimony in a
counter-suit and was granted a
lump sum payment of $5,000, plus
$500 in attorneys' fees.
She told the jury that Powers,
who served 21 months of a t0-
year sentc a for spying, was a
changed following his return
from Ru kfi nd "took all his
bitterness me."
Mrs. Posaid that during
an illness amily advised her
to see a psychiatrist and when
she refused, her family had her
declared mentally `incompetent
and placed in an Augusta (Ga.){
hospital for treatment.
Powers told the jury "the only
person who ever mistreated me
while I was in prison in Russia
was my wife Barbara."
He testified that he_ is now em
ploycd as a test pilot in Cali-'
fornia, and earns about $310 a
week.
Downed In 1960
Powers was downed May 1,
1960, while flying a reconnais-
sance mission over Russia. A few
weeks later at a summit it meet-
ing in Paris, Soviet Premier
Khrushchev demanded that the
United States apologize, condemn
spy plane missions and punish
those responsible for Powers's
flight.
He canceled an invitation for
the then President, Dwight Eisen-
hower, to visit Russia the fol-
lowing month. The summit talks]
collapsed despite the former)
President's assurance that U,',
flights had been suspended.
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400090020-3