Amelia Earhart

After seeing a roller coaster during a family excursion to the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair but not being allowed to ride it because it was "too dangerous for little girls, " a six year old Kansas City, Kansas, girl nicknamed Meely and her younger sister called Pidge enlisted the aid of a neighbor boy to construct their own in their back yard. The eight-foot high roof of the tool shed was chosen as the starting place and a track was constructed. A wooden packing box was transformed into a car, the track was greased with lard, and Meely was ready to ride the "roller coaster. " The car and passenger tipped over at the edge of the roof but the excited passenger claimed "it's just like flying. " That passenger was Amelia Earhart and her sister Muriel records this incident in her biography of her famous sister. At that time, neither of these young girls knew the significance "flying" would have for Amelia.

Amelia Mary Earhart, one of the most well-known Kansans, was born in Atchison on July 24, 1897. The Earhart girls lived with their wealthy grandparents in Atchison and attended a private school until 1908 when the family moved to Des Moines.

While working as a social worker in Boston in the early 1920s, Earhart learned to fly. She bought her first airplane, a Kinner Airster, in 1921 and broke women's altitude record the following year. The 1928 trans-Atlantic flight of the Fokker Friendship launched Earhart's career and established her name. As a passenger on the flight, she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. As a part of the flight, Earhart authored 20 Hrs. 40 Min., which was published by George Palmer Putnam, whom she married in 1931. She soon began a nationwide tour in her new airplane, the Avro Avian Moth, to promote the book.

The Midwest often welcomed Earhart during her cross country flights. Bernice Hanson, then a schoolteacher in York, Nebraska, recalled the autumn day in 1928 when school was dismissed so that children could greet the famous flyer. After a stopover in Atchison, Amelia circled the field looking for the landing strip. She smoothly landed her plane on the carefully mown pasture lined with white flags and taxied over to the cheering crowd. Airplanes, especially those flown by well-known female aviators, were rare sights in York. "Miss Earhart was a stately looking woman with short blond hair and a ready smile," Hanson remembered. "She had a firm handshake and her eyes danced as she reached down to hug the little ones in our crowd. It was a wonderful experience for us all."

Earhart took third place in the first Women's Air Derby and continued to set flight records. Because she had not piloted the Friendship flight, Earhart wanted to prove herself and prepared for a solo flight across the Atlantic. Aboard her Lockheed Vega, Earhart broke records with her 14-hour-56-minute flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in May 1932. For being the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic, she received a gold medal from the National Geographic Society and was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, both presented by President Herbert Hoover.

That year Earhart was elected president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots. In the following years she continued to set records including being the first woman to fly solo nonstop coast to coast and the first person to solo over the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California.

Earhart used her fame to share her visions for aviation and women. She encouraged women to "strive for goals outside that which is platudinous—and that is one of my best words—known as their own sphere." She emphasized the importance of preparation in her flights, not introspection. "I don't believe in the philosophy of worry. Hamlet could never have been a good aviator—he worried too much." Before ending each lecture, Earhart would express her love of flying. "It is the most modern and most beautiful form of transportation. I fly for aesthetic appreciation, as the lure of flying is beauty."

More than a thousand Emporians crowded the Lowther Junior High School auditorium on October 13, 1933, to hear the "First Lady of the Air." Earhart confessed to the audience that she learned how to fly before she learned how to drive a "motorcar." As she closed, she told them, "I hope we may meet sometime on an Atlantic airline."

Driving her Franklin automobile on a Midwest tour, Earhart addressed an audience at Leavenworth on October 15, 1933, and stopped over in Atchison for a brief rest. "I love the middle west," Amelia said to a reporter. "When the nose of my plane or my car, is turned westward, I have a feeling of pleasurable excitement." The next day, Earhart was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. at the Grand Temple in Kansas City, followed by an evening appearance in Lawrence.

Earhart's hometown reveled when she returned in June 1935 to address the Kansas State Editorial Association convention. A "highly-colored flower parade" featuring a floral float with Amelia and Governor Alfred M. Landon opened the weekend festivities. A mile-long military parade escorted Earhart and Governor Landon to Memorial Hall where she spoke to a crowd of approximately 3,500. Many others who were turned away at the door awaited outside. In closing, Earhart recalled both the child "who was born in a house on North Second street" and the one "who coasted down that hill I was remembering on the way down here. It has been a pleasant homecoming for us both."

Dora Marie Ropp, a student at Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, attended Amelia's speech on October 30, 1935. Reporting for The Alumnian, Ropp said that the aviator "presented a charming and attractive smile to the enthusiastic audience which greeted her at the College Auditorium. Mrs. Putnam's lecture, which delt (sic) mainly with her Pacific flight was interspersed with many amusing incidents which have happened to her as the world's most famous woman flier."

In 1935 Earhart's love for the Midwest, her hopes for the future of aviation, and an interest in education, led her to accept an appointment at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, as a consultant in the department for the study of careers for women. "Educators in general need to be more practical in their instruction," Amelia said. "There has never been the synchronization between academic training and the economic world that there could and should be." When asked why she chose Purdue, Earhart responded, "It is the middle west, and that is a part of the country in which I am greatly interested. You know, I was born and reared in Kansas."

Purdue helped finance Earhart's next plane, the Lockheed Electra, and she began planning her 29,000-mile flight around the equator. On March 17, 1937, Earhart and a crew of three others—Fred Noonan, Harry Manning, and Paul Mantz, departed from Oakland, California, headed west on the first leg of the flight. After a layover of three days in Honolulu, Hawaii, Earhart had difficulty during takeoff the the Electra sustained heavy damage. The plane was returned to the Lockheed facility in California for repairs.

On June 1, 1937, Earhart and Noonan departed from Miami, Florida, and headed east. Putnam was planning a celebration for the team's return on July 4 in Oakland. At approximately 22,000 miles into the flight, they landed on June 29, 1937, in Lae, New Guinea. On July 2 they departed for their 2,556-mile flight to Howland Island, in the middle of the Pacific. The remote island is a mile and a half long and a half mile wide. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Itasca, was assigned to track the plane during this leg of the flight. Several of Earhart's radio transmissions were received by the Itasca. The last transmission received was a 8:43 a.m. and the Electra was lost.

Numerous searches were conducted to learn the fate of Earhart and Noonan, but no conclusive evidence has been found. Some say the plane ran out of fuel and was ditched in the ocean. Others theorize that Earhart crash landed on one of the tiny islands in the Pacific. A few organizations have conducted expensive, high-tech searches for any traces of the Electra. The mystery of Earhart's disappearance continues to inspire books, motion pictures, memorial activities, and archeological investigations.