Harry Stewart Jr. learned to fly even before he could drive and helped save the world from the evils of fascism.

His boyhood dream to be an adventurous pilot was fulfilled thanks to World War II. But, as a civilian, racial prejudice kept him out of the cockpit.

The Tuskegee Airman National Museum in Detroit has confirmed the death of Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving fighter pilots of that era. Stewart, who died in his Bloomfield Hills home on Feb.