A Child Called

A Child Called

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. She was the

daughter of a railroad attorney and had a younger sister named Muriel. Amelia was a

tomboy and was always interested in learning. She was educated at Columbia University

and Harvard Summer School. She taught English to immigrant factory workers. During

World War I, Amelia was a volunteer in a Red Cross hospital.

Amelia heard of a woman pilot, Neta Snook, who gave flying lessons. She had her

first lesson on January 2, 1921. On July 24, 1921, Amelia bought her first plane, a

prototype of the Kinner airplane and named it “The Canary.”

In 1928, she accepted the invitation of the American pilots Wilmer Stultzman and

Louis Gordon to join them on a transatlantic flight, becoming the first woman to make the

crossing by air She described the flight in a book she wrote, 20 Hours. 40 Minutes. After that flight, Amelia made a career of flying.

Aviation was a new concept and the industry looked for ways to improve its

image. In 1921, Amelia was appointed Assistant to the General Traffic Manager and

Transcontinental Air Transport (TWA) with a special responsibility of attracting women

passengers.

Amelia organized a cross-country air race for women pilots in 1929, the Los

Angeles to Cleveland Women’s Air Derby, later called the “Powder Puff Derby.” Amelia

placed third in this race. After the race, Amelia had a meeting in her hotel room in

Cleveland with other women pilots. She formed a women’s pilot organization called the

“Ninety-Nines” because of the ninety-nine applicants. She served as the organization’s

first president. Amelia continued to work for TWA and was writing regular articles for

Cosmopolitan and other magazines, and had speaking engagements in many cities across

the country.

In 1930, she broke several women’s speed records in her Lockheed Vega aircraft.

In 1931, she wrote a book about those exciting experiences called The Fun of It. By early 1932, no other person had successfully flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean since Charles Lindbergh. Amelia decided she would be the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic. She would not duplicate Lindbergh’s course, but would fly from Harbour Grace,

Newfoundland and the British Isles would be her destination.

On May 20, 1932, exactly five years a...

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...nconfirmed sightings have been reported and there are many theories of their fate.

Some of those theories are that Amelia was a on a spy mission authorized by President

Roosevelt and was captured; that she purposely dove her aircraft into the Pacific; they

were captured by the Japanese, Noonan was executed and Earhart was forced to broadcast to the American GI’s as “Tokyo Rose” during World War II; and another theory is that Amelia lived for years on an island in the South Pacific with a native fisherman. In 1961 it was thought that the bones of Earhart and Noonan had been found on the island of Saipan, but they turned out to be those of Saipan natives. In 1992, a search party reported finding remnants of the Electra at Nikumaroro, Kiribati, but those claims were disputed by people who worked on Earhart’s plane. Researches believe that the plane ran out of fuel and that Earhart and Noonan died at sea.

Amelia Earhart spent most of her lifetime establishing the permanent role of

women in aviation. She became an international heroine overnight as the first woman to

fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia’s disappearance is still a mystery, but her enduring legacy remains.