By Hayley
“Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price,” said Amelia. Amelia Mary Earhart was one of the greatest female American aviators of all time. She has accomplished many things, such as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. As well as setting many records, she shared her experiences through books, magazines, newspapers, and lectures, giving an insight on what it was like to be her. She even had her own line of clothing. Amelia Earhart let nothing stand in the way of achieving her dreams.
Amelia was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Her parents were Edwin and Amy Earhart; she had one sister, Muriel Earhart. Amelia was not like most young girls-she loved doing activities that most boys would do. She enjoyed playing football, fishing with her dad, and collecting insects with her mom.
In 1905, Edwin received a job promotion that caused him and Amy to move to Des Moines, Iowa. Amelia and Muriel stayed back in Atchison to continue attending school. It wasn’t until the summer of 1908 that the girls went and joined their parents in Des Moines. Amelia turned eleven the same year and her father took the family to the Iowa State Fair to celebrate. This was where she saw her first airplane. It was made of wood and rusty metal, and she was not at all impressed by it.
Her father began to drink and soon enough, it turned into a major issue that effected Amelia’s life greatly. He had been working for a railroad company, but because of his newly formed drinking habit, he was forced to find another job. Edwin never had a stable job, so the family was forced to move often. Amelia attended six high schools before graduating.
Amelia continued her education by enrolling in Ogontz School, a college prep school. Upon visiting Muriel in Toronto, Canada, during winter vacation of her last year, she was shaken by the overwhelming number of wounded WWI soldiers. Amelia was so traumatized that she decided to be a nurse’s aide at Spadina Military Hospital. She became friends with wounded pilots staying at the hospital, who would eventually influence her flying career. When she wasn’t working, she enjoyed watching her former pilot patients fly at a nearby airfield. On November 11, 1918, she left the hospital for Columbia University. There, she was registered as being a premedical student. In the summer of 1920, she visited her parents in Los Angeles. While she was there, she loved watching air shows. Amelia decided to take her first ride in an airplane and loved it. She saved up money for flying lessons with Neta Snook and her own plane, a Kinner Airster. In May of 1923 she earned her pilot’s license. Some time later, she joined the NNA, through which she met George Palmer Putnam, who she eventually married. George encouraged her to write the book 20 hrs. 40 min. about her flying experiences. In February of 1931 Amelia married George. Amelia was encouraged to fly even more than ever.
Amelia set many records, such as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the first woman to fly solo from coast to coast, the first person to fly from the Red Sea to India, and the first person to fly nonstop from Mexico City to Newark. She was named aviation editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine and president of the Ninety Nines, a new woman’s aviation club which she helped form.
On June 1, 1937 Amelia and her navigator Peter Noonan set out on a flight to circle the earth at the equator, as this had never been done before. They had completed 22,000 miles of the 29,000 mile long trip when the plane and its occupants mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. A massive search party was organized but failed to locate any trace of them. Some people think they crashed, while others think that Amelia was on a secret spy mission for the United States and was captured by the Japanese, but no one really knows for sure how the famous Amelia Mary Earhart died.
Amelia Earhart constantly inspires young female aviators to never give up. She didn’t let anything get in the way of accomplishing her dreams, always persevered, performed only her personal best, and took pride in all that she did. Although Amelia was only forty when she died, she will always be remembered through her many achievements.
References
"Amelia Earhart." Kids InfoBits. Thomson Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/KidsInfoBits
"Achievements." Ameliaearhart.com. 3 April 2009
< http://ameliaearhart.com/about/achievements.htm>.
"Fast Facts." Ameliaearhart.com. 3 April 2009
<http://ameliaearhart.com/about/fastfacts.html>.
Szabo, Corinne. Sky Pioneer. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1997.
Raatma, Lucia. Amelia Earhart. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library, 2001.
