I met Pappy Boyington in the late 1970’s at an airshow in California. I have read his book.
I moved from California to the Dallas area in 1991. Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison had spring and fall airshows in the 1990’s. I met Paul Tibbits (Enola Gay pilot), Robert Morgan (Memphis Belle pilot), Joe Engle (astronaut), Hoot Gibson (astronaut), and Tex Hill (Flying Tigers pilot). Hoot Gibson’s wife was in space abord the Space Shuttle while he was at this airshow. We drove to Oshkosh in 1978 when I was a teenager and stayed in the campground for a week across the street from the airshow.
I believe it was in California where my brother met him, and it might have been a little before 1980. There’s at least a small chance that the two of you were at the same show.
You’re lucky to have met so many of those people. I never did, though a former roommate met Hanna Reitsch at an airshow one time.