Clyde Cessna made very few appearances after his retirement save for the opening of the Wichita municipal airport, to which he was a large donor. He also made small-town history by flying the plane that delivered the first airmail to Kingman county, consisting of 1,500 letters.[1] Cessna spent most of his retirement working the land and inventing improved farm equipment. For years in the summer, his son Eldon would travel back from California to the Rago farm to help with the wheat harvest. Janice Clarke remembers helping her grandmother Europa in the kitchen while Clyde, Eldon, and her brother Claire all got up at the crack of dawn to harvest the wheat. Despite his absence, Cessna Aircraft, under the leadership of Dwayne Wallace, went on to be the largest manufacturer of general aircraft in the nation and profited significantly from contracts made during World War 2. Cessna was an innovator in the field of aviation, a successful and determined businessman, and of course a Kansas farmer. The Rago, Kansas farm was always a returning point for Cessna. There he developed his understanding of machinery. He recovered from his earliest crashes. He overcame adversity and failure. He raided his family. The farm helped support his ambitions and was truly his home. In 1956, after a long day of tinkering with his machines, Clyde Cessna passed away in his home, the Rago Kansas farm.

[1] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 83