Chandy Clanton painted the sky with her American-flag themed monoplane.

"Some people are musicians and some people are painters," said her father, Harry Barr, "and some people have artistic capabilities in an airplane."

Friday afternoon, Clanton, a 36-year-old mother of two from Lincoln, died when her plane crashed during practice for a show in rural Tarkio, Mo.

She was a flying ace - one of the country's best air show pilots - and her maneuvers wowed even her older brother, J.B. Barr, a 40-year-old man who grew up going to air shows.

"She did some amazing things in the air," Barr said Saturday.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident.

Clanton's father, Harry Barr, talked with witnesses at the scene of the crash. He said Saturday he wasn't sure what happened.

"She was doing one of her trademark-type maneuvers … a very aggressive-type maneuver," he said.

The plane crashed in a bean field east of Tarkio along Highway 136, according to a press release from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Tarkio is in northwest Missouri, about 30 miles east of Auburn, Neb.

"Just as soon as I heard about (the crash)… I got in an airplane and flew over there," Harry Barr said.

When he arrived, people were in shock.

Clanton's flight was to be one of the main attractions of Saturday's Tarkio Missouri Air Show. She's flown in it many times.

Larry Lumkin, a fellow pilot who has known Clanton for at least 10 years, dedicated his own flight at the air show to her.

"We had a moment of silence in the briefing," Lumkin said. "We spoke of our kind words, and thoughts of Chandy and what she meant to us."

A three-time member of the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team, Clanton had competed in two World Aerobatic Championships, starting in 2003.

Representing her country at the competition was one of her biggest dreams, her father said. And she accomplished it.

"You just gotta be proud, you know?" he said. "Proud as you can be, because she had certain goals … and she accomplished those goals."

In Lincoln, Clanton was as much a community member as a pilot.

She helped found and was vice president of a church in northwest Lincoln - Word of Life Church, just north of Highway 34 near Northwest Sixth Street - which opened in March.

"She's a wonderful, warm person," said Pastor Larry Oetting. "It was quite obvious that she was a leader in many ways."

She was active in missionary work for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Her two children, 10-year-old, Harrison, and 7-year-old, Drew, are staying with their father. They were not in Tarkio when their mom crashed.

"They would watch her fly air shows all the time," J.B. Barr said. "It was one of their favorite things to do actually."

A public memorial service is tentatively scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at Messiah Lutheran Church, 1800 S. 84th St. Details will be announced at a later date.

Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7234 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com.