Aviation pioneer, aviatrix, air racer, aviation record holder, first female licensed air transport pilot, first female licensed aviation mechanic and first female federal aviation official. She was a contemporary and friend of Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes and Marvel Crosson, and participated in the first Women's Air Derby in 1929 which humorist and aviation fan, Will Rogers, dubbed the Powder Puff Derby. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Omlie grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. She became interested in aviation as a young girl when President Woodrow Wilson visited her city to promote the League of Nations. One of the presidential events was an air show. It was the first time Omlie had seen an airplane, and it was love at first sight. Later, after working as a secretary for two weeks, she left her job and convinced the owner of an air service to teach her how to fly. Before she completed her flight training, Omlie used her inheritance from her grandfather to buy a Curtis Jenny. Using contract pilots to fly her plane, Omlie started performing aerial demonstrations like wing walking and parachute jumping. She was noted for dancing the Charleston on the top wing of her old biplane. For a while, she held the record for the highest altitude parachute jump. She also negotiated a deal with 20th Century Fox to do the aerial stunts in the serial, The Perils of Pauline. On the air show circuit, Phoebe Fairgrave met Vernon Omlie. They traveled the air show circuit for a while, finally marrying and settling in Memphis, Tennessee. There they opened a flying service. The Omlies taught novelist William Faulkner how to fly, and some think that the flying couple inspired the characters Roger and Laverne Shumann in the Faulkner novel Pylon. Omlie continued to set records in aviation by setting a world altitude record for females by reaching 25,400 feet. She was the first female to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft. During the presidential campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic National Committee needed a pilot to fly Roosevelt and his campaign workers around the country. They chose Phoebe Omlie. Roosevelt was so impressed by her ability and sharp wit that, once he was president, he appointed her as special advisor for air intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Omlie had become the first federal aviation official in the history of America. Eleanor Roosevelt said that Omlie was one of eleven women whose achievements made it safe to say that the world is progressing. One of her accomplishments during her service to the committee was to use WPA workers to paint the names of towns on water towers and roof tops so pilots could tell where they were. The marking continues to this day. Tragedy struck in 1936 when Vernon Omlie was killed at age 40 in a commercial airliner crash outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Phoebe Omlie was devastated. As World War Two approached, Omlie sold the flying service and once again left Memphis for Washington, D.C. where she worked for the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the forerunner of today's Federal Aviation Administration. In her work with the CAA, Omlie established 66 flying schools including the one in Alabama that taught the famed Tuskegee Airmen how to fly. She implemented a program to train women as flight instructors, saying that, "If women could teach children how to walk, they could teach adults how to fly." Many of those women flight instructors chose to serve their country by becoming Women Air Service Pilots or WASPs, picking war planes up from the manufacturers and delivering them to military bases. Omlie became disillusioned with the bureaucracy and over regulation of the post war government and she resigned from the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1952, and left aviation for good. After several failed business ventures and for reasons unknown, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and lived as a recluse in a cheap hotel for the rest of her life. Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie died alone from lung cancer and the effects of alcoholism. She was so poor at the time of her death that the few friends she had left raised the money to take her body back home for burial. Her legacy lives on today. The control tower at Memphis International Airport is named for Phoebe and Vernon Omlie, pioneers of American aviation. (Bio by Herb Greene)∼Phoebe Jane Fairgrave Omlie (November 21, 1902 – July 17, 1975) was an American aviation pioneer, particularly noted for her accomplishments as an early female aviator.[1] Omlie was the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, the first licensed female transport pilot, and the first woman to be appointed to a federal position in the aviation field.[2]
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Omlie set several world records in aviation, including the highest altitude parachute jump by a woman. She was also the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft,[1] and was considered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of "eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say the world is progressing".[3]
Early life[edit]
Phoebe Jane Fairgrave was born in Des Moines, Iowa on November 21, 1902,[4] and was the only daughter of parents Harry J. Park and Madge Traister Park. After divorcing Harry Park, Madge married Andrew Fairgrave, who adopted her two children, Phoebe and Paul.[1] Phoebe and her brother, Paul, attended Oak Park School in Des Moines until she was 12, when she and her family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.[1] There, Fairgrave attended Madison School and Mechanic Arts High School and graduated in 1920. Fairgrave's interest in aviation was sparked the day before she graduated, when President Woodrow Wilson visited Minneapolis.[5] President Wilson's visit was commemorated by a flyover and was the first airshow of any kind that Fairgrave had witnessed.[4]
Aviation career[edit]
Shortly after graduating high school, Fairgrave spent a few months at the Guy Durrell Dramatic School and worked briefly as a secretary.[1] Bored with the prospects, she began hanging around airfields near her home and attempted to convince the airport manager to allow one of his flight instructors to take her flying.[4] The manager finally agreed, thinking that he could scare Fairgrave's interest in aviation out of her by performing various aerobatic maneuvers in an attempt to make her sick.[5] Instead, Fairgrave demanded more flight time and used some of her inheritance to purchase a Curtiss JN-4 biplane after her fourth flight.[5]
Still in her teens, Fairgrave started performing stunts on the wing of her aircraft as another pilot remained at the controls.[4] Fairgrave began wing walking, learned to hang below the plane by her teeth, parachute, and "dance the Charleston on the top wing".[4] Using the stunts she had learned, Fairgrave claimed the record for the highest parachute jump for a woman by jumping from her plane at 15,200 ft (4,600 m) (MSL) and earned a movie deal, flying aerobatic stunts for the film serial The Perils of Pauline.[1] This was her first flight with Vernon C. Omlie, who would become her husband.[4] Following the record setting jump, Fairgrave and Omlie flew around the country on a barnstorming tour and eventually married in 1922.[5]
In 1925, the Omlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began offering flying lessons and mechanical services to local residents.[5] A year later, in 1927, Phoebe became the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, as well as the first licensed female transport pilot.[1] While Vernon continued operating the business and working as a flight instructor, Phoebe began working for the Mono Aircraft Company. Flying the company's Monocoupe 90 light aircraft out of Quad City International Airport in 1928, Omlie set a world altitude record for women when she reached 25,400 ft (7,700 m) (MSL).[1][4][5] That same year, Omlie competed in the Edsel Ford Air Tour and became the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft.[4] Omlie later joined the Ninety-Nines as a charter member after competing in a race with Amelia Earhart.[4][6]
Omlie's success as a pilot was recognized by the Democratic National Committee, and she was enlisted to fly a female speaker around the country for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.[4] After the successful campaign, Omlie was appointed by President Roosevelt as the "Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics".[4] This made her the first woman to be appointed to a federal aviation position.[2] In this role, Omlie acted as a "liaison between the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce" alongside Amelia Earhart to create what would become the National Airspace System.[5]
On August 5, 1936, Vernon Omlie and seven passengers were killed when a commercial flight they were aboard crashed in St. Louis, Missouri while attempting to land in foggy conditions.[4] Phoebe Omlie immediately resigned her position in Washington, D.C. and returned to Memphis.[4] Following her husband's death, Omlie did not return to Washington, D.C. until 1941, when she accepted a job as "Senior Private Flying Specialist of the Civil Aeronautics Authority".[4] In this position, and to meet the severe need for pilots for service in WWII, Omlie established 66 flight schools in 46 states, including a school in Tuskegee, Alabama that would later train the infamous Tuskegee Airmen.[4] With the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, she established an "experimental" program to train women as instructors. The first class, ten women from various states, trained between September and February 1943, and was meant to establish her strong and, to some, controversial belief that " . . . if women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly." These women went on to instruct both men and women pilots both in military and civilian flight training programs, including the Navy V-5 and the USAAF Women Airforce Service Pilots.[7]
Unhappy about the increasing regulation of the aviation industry by the United States Federal Government under President Harry S. Truman, Omlie resigned in 1952 and left aviation.[5]
Later life[edit]
After resigning from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Omlie returned to Memphis and purchased a cattle farm in Como, Mississippi.[4] Omlie's inexperience with operating a cattle farm posed a problem in running the business, and she traded the farm a few years later for a small cafe and hotel in Lambert, Mississippi.[5] The hotel business proved to be just as unsuccessful for Omlie, who returned to Memphis in 1961.[5]
Leading up to the final years before her death, Omlie made little money as a public speaker.[5] The last few years of Omlie's life were spent in seclusion, living in a flophouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, fighting lung cancer and alcoholism.[1][5] Omlie died on July 17, 1975, and was buried next to her husband in Forest Hill Cemetery.[1]
In June 1982, a new air traffic control tower was dedicated and named in honor of Phoebe and Vernon Omlie at the Memphis International Airport.[8][9]
Wikipedia
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Omlie set several world records in aviation, including the highest altitude parachute jump by a woman. She was also the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft,[1] and was considered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of "eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say the world is progressing".[3]
Early life[edit]
Phoebe Jane Fairgrave was born in Des Moines, Iowa on November 21, 1902,[4] and was the only daughter of parents Harry J. Park and Madge Traister Park. After divorcing Harry Park, Madge married Andrew Fairgrave, who adopted her two children, Phoebe and Paul.[1] Phoebe and her brother, Paul, attended Oak Park School in Des Moines until she was 12, when she and her family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.[1] There, Fairgrave attended Madison School and Mechanic Arts High School and graduated in 1920. Fairgrave's interest in aviation was sparked the day before she graduated, when President Woodrow Wilson visited Minneapolis.[5] President Wilson's visit was commemorated by a flyover and was the first airshow of any kind that Fairgrave had witnessed.[4]
Aviation career[edit]
Shortly after graduating high school, Fairgrave spent a few months at the Guy Durrell Dramatic School and worked briefly as a secretary.[1] Bored with the prospects, she began hanging around airfields near her home and attempted to convince the airport manager to allow one of his flight instructors to take her flying.[4] The manager finally agreed, thinking that he could scare Fairgrave's interest in aviation out of her by performing various aerobatic maneuvers in an attempt to make her sick.[5] Instead, Fairgrave demanded more flight time and used some of her inheritance to purchase a Curtiss JN-4 biplane after her fourth flight.[5]
Still in her teens, Fairgrave started performing stunts on the wing of her aircraft as another pilot remained at the controls.[4] Fairgrave began wing walking, learned to hang below the plane by her teeth, parachute, and "dance the Charleston on the top wing".[4] Using the stunts she had learned, Fairgrave claimed the record for the highest parachute jump for a woman by jumping from her plane at 15,200 ft (4,600 m) (MSL) and earned a movie deal, flying aerobatic stunts for the film serial The Perils of Pauline.[1] This was her first flight with Vernon C. Omlie, who would become her husband.[4] Following the record setting jump, Fairgrave and Omlie flew around the country on a barnstorming tour and eventually married in 1922.[5]
In 1925, the Omlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began offering flying lessons and mechanical services to local residents.[5] A year later, in 1927, Phoebe became the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, as well as the first licensed female transport pilot.[1] While Vernon continued operating the business and working as a flight instructor, Phoebe began working for the Mono Aircraft Company. Flying the company's Monocoupe 90 light aircraft out of Quad City International Airport in 1928, Omlie set a world altitude record for women when she reached 25,400 ft (7,700 m) (MSL).[1][4][5] That same year, Omlie competed in the Edsel Ford Air Tour and became the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft.[4] Omlie later joined the Ninety-Nines as a charter member after competing in a race with Amelia Earhart.[4][6]
Omlie's success as a pilot was recognized by the Democratic National Committee, and she was enlisted to fly a female speaker around the country for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.[4] After the successful campaign, Omlie was appointed by President Roosevelt as the "Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics".[4] This made her the first woman to be appointed to a federal aviation position.[2] In this role, Omlie acted as a "liaison between the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce" alongside Amelia Earhart to create what would become the National Airspace System.[5]
On August 5, 1936, Vernon Omlie and seven passengers were killed when a commercial flight they were aboard crashed in St. Louis, Missouri while attempting to land in foggy conditions.[4] Phoebe Omlie immediately resigned her position in Washington, D.C. and returned to Memphis.[4] Following her husband's death, Omlie did not return to Washington, D.C. until 1941, when she accepted a job as "Senior Private Flying Specialist of the Civil Aeronautics Authority".[4] In this position, and to meet the severe need for pilots for service in WWII, Omlie established 66 flight schools in 46 states, including a school in Tuskegee, Alabama that would later train the infamous Tuskegee Airmen.[4] With the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, she established an "experimental" program to train women as instructors. The first class, ten women from various states, trained between September and February 1943, and was meant to establish her strong and, to some, controversial belief that " . . . if women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly." These women went on to instruct both men and women pilots both in military and civilian flight training programs, including the Navy V-5 and the USAAF Women Airforce Service Pilots.[7]
Unhappy about the increasing regulation of the aviation industry by the United States Federal Government under President Harry S. Truman, Omlie resigned in 1952 and left aviation.[5]
Later life[edit]
After resigning from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Omlie returned to Memphis and purchased a cattle farm in Como, Mississippi.[4] Omlie's inexperience with operating a cattle farm posed a problem in running the business, and she traded the farm a few years later for a small cafe and hotel in Lambert, Mississippi.[5] The hotel business proved to be just as unsuccessful for Omlie, who returned to Memphis in 1961.[5]
Leading up to the final years before her death, Omlie made little money as a public speaker.[5] The last few years of Omlie's life were spent in seclusion, living in a flophouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, fighting lung cancer and alcoholism.[1][5] Omlie died on July 17, 1975, and was buried next to her husband in Forest Hill Cemetery.[1]
In June 1982, a new air traffic control tower was dedicated and named in honor of Phoebe and Vernon Omlie at the Memphis International Airport.[8][9]
Wikipedia
Aviation pioneer, aviatrix, air racer, aviation record holder, first female licensed air transport pilot, first female licensed aviation mechanic and first female federal aviation official. She was a contemporary and friend of Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes and Marvel Crosson, and participated in the first Women's Air Derby in 1929 which humorist and aviation fan, Will Rogers, dubbed the Powder Puff Derby. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Omlie grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. She became interested in aviation as a young girl when President Woodrow Wilson visited her city to promote the League of Nations. One of the presidential events was an air show. It was the first time Omlie had seen an airplane, and it was love at first sight. Later, after working as a secretary for two weeks, she left her job and convinced the owner of an air service to teach her how to fly. Before she completed her flight training, Omlie used her inheritance from her grandfather to buy a Curtis Jenny. Using contract pilots to fly her plane, Omlie started performing aerial demonstrations like wing walking and parachute jumping. She was noted for dancing the Charleston on the top wing of her old biplane. For a while, she held the record for the highest altitude parachute jump. She also negotiated a deal with 20th Century Fox to do the aerial stunts in the serial, The Perils of Pauline. On the air show circuit, Phoebe Fairgrave met Vernon Omlie. They traveled the air show circuit for a while, finally marrying and settling in Memphis, Tennessee. There they opened a flying service. The Omlies taught novelist William Faulkner how to fly, and some think that the flying couple inspired the characters Roger and Laverne Shumann in the Faulkner novel Pylon. Omlie continued to set records in aviation by setting a world altitude record for females by reaching 25,400 feet. She was the first female to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft. During the presidential campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic National Committee needed a pilot to fly Roosevelt and his campaign workers around the country. They chose Phoebe Omlie. Roosevelt was so impressed by her ability and sharp wit that, once he was president, he appointed her as special advisor for air intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Omlie had become the first federal aviation official in the history of America. Eleanor Roosevelt said that Omlie was one of eleven women whose achievements made it safe to say that the world is progressing. One of her accomplishments during her service to the committee was to use WPA workers to paint the names of towns on water towers and roof tops so pilots could tell where they were. The marking continues to this day. Tragedy struck in 1936 when Vernon Omlie was killed at age 40 in a commercial airliner crash outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Phoebe Omlie was devastated. As World War Two approached, Omlie sold the flying service and once again left Memphis for Washington, D.C. where she worked for the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the forerunner of today's Federal Aviation Administration. In her work with the CAA, Omlie established 66 flying schools including the one in Alabama that taught the famed Tuskegee Airmen how to fly. She implemented a program to train women as flight instructors, saying that, "If women could teach children how to walk, they could teach adults how to fly." Many of those women flight instructors chose to serve their country by becoming Women Air Service Pilots or WASPs, picking war planes up from the manufacturers and delivering them to military bases. Omlie became disillusioned with the bureaucracy and over regulation of the post war government and she resigned from the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1952, and left aviation for good. After several failed business ventures and for reasons unknown, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and lived as a recluse in a cheap hotel for the rest of her life. Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie died alone from lung cancer and the effects of alcoholism. She was so poor at the time of her death that the few friends she had left raised the money to take her body back home for burial. Her legacy lives on today. The control tower at Memphis International Airport is named for Phoebe and Vernon Omlie, pioneers of American aviation. (Bio by Herb Greene)∼Phoebe Jane Fairgrave Omlie (November 21, 1902 – July 17, 1975) was an American aviation pioneer, particularly noted for her accomplishments as an early female aviator.[1] Omlie was the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, the first licensed female transport pilot, and the first woman to be appointed to a federal position in the aviation field.[2]
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Omlie set several world records in aviation, including the highest altitude parachute jump by a woman. She was also the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft,[1] and was considered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of "eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say the world is progressing".[3]
Early life[edit]
Phoebe Jane Fairgrave was born in Des Moines, Iowa on November 21, 1902,[4] and was the only daughter of parents Harry J. Park and Madge Traister Park. After divorcing Harry Park, Madge married Andrew Fairgrave, who adopted her two children, Phoebe and Paul.[1] Phoebe and her brother, Paul, attended Oak Park School in Des Moines until she was 12, when she and her family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.[1] There, Fairgrave attended Madison School and Mechanic Arts High School and graduated in 1920. Fairgrave's interest in aviation was sparked the day before she graduated, when President Woodrow Wilson visited Minneapolis.[5] President Wilson's visit was commemorated by a flyover and was the first airshow of any kind that Fairgrave had witnessed.[4]
Aviation career[edit]
Shortly after graduating high school, Fairgrave spent a few months at the Guy Durrell Dramatic School and worked briefly as a secretary.[1] Bored with the prospects, she began hanging around airfields near her home and attempted to convince the airport manager to allow one of his flight instructors to take her flying.[4] The manager finally agreed, thinking that he could scare Fairgrave's interest in aviation out of her by performing various aerobatic maneuvers in an attempt to make her sick.[5] Instead, Fairgrave demanded more flight time and used some of her inheritance to purchase a Curtiss JN-4 biplane after her fourth flight.[5]
Still in her teens, Fairgrave started performing stunts on the wing of her aircraft as another pilot remained at the controls.[4] Fairgrave began wing walking, learned to hang below the plane by her teeth, parachute, and "dance the Charleston on the top wing".[4] Using the stunts she had learned, Fairgrave claimed the record for the highest parachute jump for a woman by jumping from her plane at 15,200 ft (4,600 m) (MSL) and earned a movie deal, flying aerobatic stunts for the film serial The Perils of Pauline.[1] This was her first flight with Vernon C. Omlie, who would become her husband.[4] Following the record setting jump, Fairgrave and Omlie flew around the country on a barnstorming tour and eventually married in 1922.[5]
In 1925, the Omlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began offering flying lessons and mechanical services to local residents.[5] A year later, in 1927, Phoebe became the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, as well as the first licensed female transport pilot.[1] While Vernon continued operating the business and working as a flight instructor, Phoebe began working for the Mono Aircraft Company. Flying the company's Monocoupe 90 light aircraft out of Quad City International Airport in 1928, Omlie set a world altitude record for women when she reached 25,400 ft (7,700 m) (MSL).[1][4][5] That same year, Omlie competed in the Edsel Ford Air Tour and became the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft.[4] Omlie later joined the Ninety-Nines as a charter member after competing in a race with Amelia Earhart.[4][6]
Omlie's success as a pilot was recognized by the Democratic National Committee, and she was enlisted to fly a female speaker around the country for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.[4] After the successful campaign, Omlie was appointed by President Roosevelt as the "Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics".[4] This made her the first woman to be appointed to a federal aviation position.[2] In this role, Omlie acted as a "liaison between the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce" alongside Amelia Earhart to create what would become the National Airspace System.[5]
On August 5, 1936, Vernon Omlie and seven passengers were killed when a commercial flight they were aboard crashed in St. Louis, Missouri while attempting to land in foggy conditions.[4] Phoebe Omlie immediately resigned her position in Washington, D.C. and returned to Memphis.[4] Following her husband's death, Omlie did not return to Washington, D.C. until 1941, when she accepted a job as "Senior Private Flying Specialist of the Civil Aeronautics Authority".[4] In this position, and to meet the severe need for pilots for service in WWII, Omlie established 66 flight schools in 46 states, including a school in Tuskegee, Alabama that would later train the infamous Tuskegee Airmen.[4] With the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, she established an "experimental" program to train women as instructors. The first class, ten women from various states, trained between September and February 1943, and was meant to establish her strong and, to some, controversial belief that " . . . if women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly." These women went on to instruct both men and women pilots both in military and civilian flight training programs, including the Navy V-5 and the USAAF Women Airforce Service Pilots.[7]
Unhappy about the increasing regulation of the aviation industry by the United States Federal Government under President Harry S. Truman, Omlie resigned in 1952 and left aviation.[5]
Later life[edit]
After resigning from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Omlie returned to Memphis and purchased a cattle farm in Como, Mississippi.[4] Omlie's inexperience with operating a cattle farm posed a problem in running the business, and she traded the farm a few years later for a small cafe and hotel in Lambert, Mississippi.[5] The hotel business proved to be just as unsuccessful for Omlie, who returned to Memphis in 1961.[5]
Leading up to the final years before her death, Omlie made little money as a public speaker.[5] The last few years of Omlie's life were spent in seclusion, living in a flophouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, fighting lung cancer and alcoholism.[1][5] Omlie died on July 17, 1975, and was buried next to her husband in Forest Hill Cemetery.[1]
In June 1982, a new air traffic control tower was dedicated and named in honor of Phoebe and Vernon Omlie at the Memphis International Airport.[8][9]
Wikipedia
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Omlie set several world records in aviation, including the highest altitude parachute jump by a woman. She was also the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft,[1] and was considered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of "eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say the world is progressing".[3]
Early life[edit]
Phoebe Jane Fairgrave was born in Des Moines, Iowa on November 21, 1902,[4] and was the only daughter of parents Harry J. Park and Madge Traister Park. After divorcing Harry Park, Madge married Andrew Fairgrave, who adopted her two children, Phoebe and Paul.[1] Phoebe and her brother, Paul, attended Oak Park School in Des Moines until she was 12, when she and her family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.[1] There, Fairgrave attended Madison School and Mechanic Arts High School and graduated in 1920. Fairgrave's interest in aviation was sparked the day before she graduated, when President Woodrow Wilson visited Minneapolis.[5] President Wilson's visit was commemorated by a flyover and was the first airshow of any kind that Fairgrave had witnessed.[4]
Aviation career[edit]
Shortly after graduating high school, Fairgrave spent a few months at the Guy Durrell Dramatic School and worked briefly as a secretary.[1] Bored with the prospects, she began hanging around airfields near her home and attempted to convince the airport manager to allow one of his flight instructors to take her flying.[4] The manager finally agreed, thinking that he could scare Fairgrave's interest in aviation out of her by performing various aerobatic maneuvers in an attempt to make her sick.[5] Instead, Fairgrave demanded more flight time and used some of her inheritance to purchase a Curtiss JN-4 biplane after her fourth flight.[5]
Still in her teens, Fairgrave started performing stunts on the wing of her aircraft as another pilot remained at the controls.[4] Fairgrave began wing walking, learned to hang below the plane by her teeth, parachute, and "dance the Charleston on the top wing".[4] Using the stunts she had learned, Fairgrave claimed the record for the highest parachute jump for a woman by jumping from her plane at 15,200 ft (4,600 m) (MSL) and earned a movie deal, flying aerobatic stunts for the film serial The Perils of Pauline.[1] This was her first flight with Vernon C. Omlie, who would become her husband.[4] Following the record setting jump, Fairgrave and Omlie flew around the country on a barnstorming tour and eventually married in 1922.[5]
In 1925, the Omlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began offering flying lessons and mechanical services to local residents.[5] A year later, in 1927, Phoebe became the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license, as well as the first licensed female transport pilot.[1] While Vernon continued operating the business and working as a flight instructor, Phoebe began working for the Mono Aircraft Company. Flying the company's Monocoupe 90 light aircraft out of Quad City International Airport in 1928, Omlie set a world altitude record for women when she reached 25,400 ft (7,700 m) (MSL).[1][4][5] That same year, Omlie competed in the Edsel Ford Air Tour and became the first woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft.[4] Omlie later joined the Ninety-Nines as a charter member after competing in a race with Amelia Earhart.[4][6]
Omlie's success as a pilot was recognized by the Democratic National Committee, and she was enlisted to fly a female speaker around the country for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.[4] After the successful campaign, Omlie was appointed by President Roosevelt as the "Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics".[4] This made her the first woman to be appointed to a federal aviation position.[2] In this role, Omlie acted as a "liaison between the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce" alongside Amelia Earhart to create what would become the National Airspace System.[5]
On August 5, 1936, Vernon Omlie and seven passengers were killed when a commercial flight they were aboard crashed in St. Louis, Missouri while attempting to land in foggy conditions.[4] Phoebe Omlie immediately resigned her position in Washington, D.C. and returned to Memphis.[4] Following her husband's death, Omlie did not return to Washington, D.C. until 1941, when she accepted a job as "Senior Private Flying Specialist of the Civil Aeronautics Authority".[4] In this position, and to meet the severe need for pilots for service in WWII, Omlie established 66 flight schools in 46 states, including a school in Tuskegee, Alabama that would later train the infamous Tuskegee Airmen.[4] With the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, she established an "experimental" program to train women as instructors. The first class, ten women from various states, trained between September and February 1943, and was meant to establish her strong and, to some, controversial belief that " . . . if women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly." These women went on to instruct both men and women pilots both in military and civilian flight training programs, including the Navy V-5 and the USAAF Women Airforce Service Pilots.[7]
Unhappy about the increasing regulation of the aviation industry by the United States Federal Government under President Harry S. Truman, Omlie resigned in 1952 and left aviation.[5]
Later life[edit]
After resigning from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Omlie returned to Memphis and purchased a cattle farm in Como, Mississippi.[4] Omlie's inexperience with operating a cattle farm posed a problem in running the business, and she traded the farm a few years later for a small cafe and hotel in Lambert, Mississippi.[5] The hotel business proved to be just as unsuccessful for Omlie, who returned to Memphis in 1961.[5]
Leading up to the final years before her death, Omlie made little money as a public speaker.[5] The last few years of Omlie's life were spent in seclusion, living in a flophouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, fighting lung cancer and alcoholism.[1][5] Omlie died on July 17, 1975, and was buried next to her husband in Forest Hill Cemetery.[1]
In June 1982, a new air traffic control tower was dedicated and named in honor of Phoebe and Vernon Omlie at the Memphis International Airport.[8][9]
Wikipedia
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