Amelia Earhart, had once said that a plane was “not at all interesting.” But after her disappearance, no one would doubt that she was one of the most famous aviators of all time.
Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. She and her sister, Muriel, lived mainly with her maternal grandparents, spending summers with her parents. At her grandparents’ house, she learned to hunt, sled, and climb trees. But as their father, Edwin Earhart, struggled with alcoholism, Amelia’s family had to move to Chicago. When she was 19, she graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. Her yearbook caption read, “The girl in brown who walks alone.”
She then attended the Ogontz finishing school, but did not graduate. She was attending a stunt flight exhibition with her friends when a plane dived at her. Amelia didn’t flinch.
Now that she had graduated, Amelia wasn’t sure what to do. She volunteered as a nurse’s aide, studied mechanics, dropped out, studied medicine, and then decided to seek a career in medicine. However, then she decided to move to California with her parents, who had reunited.
In 1920, Amelia took her first ride in an airplane, 17 years after the Wright brothers’ famous flight. After that, she couldn’t stop thinking about that airplane. She took on odd jobs to pay for flying lessons with Neta Snook, and in 1921 she bought her first airplane.
Amelia christened her bright-yellow Kinner Airster biplane “the Canary” and got her flying license. She then went on to set multiple records. But in 1924, her parents divorced, and she worked as a teacher and a social worker in Massachusetts. She then became the first woman to make a transatlantic flight, but as she was simply a passenger, it was not significant to her. She needed more.
After that flight, Amelia was cemented as a celebrity. With the help of publicist George Putnam, she wrote her first book about her flight experience across the Atlantic, 20 Hrs. 40 Min. In 1929, Amelia purchased another plane, a Lockheed Vega. She then helped found the Ninety-Nines, Inc., a women’s flight organization. As the years passed, Amelia broke at least 5 records - in the span of 5 years.
In 1931, she married George Putnam, but kept her maiden name. She was born Amelia Earhart and would die Amelia Earhart. However, this moment came all too soon. After she wrote another book, set numerous records, and had a happy marriage, she still wasn’t satisfied. With navigator Fred Noonan, she set out for the ultimate flying feat - to circle the equator.
She never returned.
This is the most mysterious part about her life, and the most famous one. She and Fred Noonan had checked in at New Guinea, so they had definitely made it there. They were supposed to then stop at Howland island, but they never made it. Numerous theories have been presented, including the thought that she may have run out of fuel and crashed, been captured by the Japanese, or perhaps been spying on the Japanese herself. Although numerous search programs have been sent out, Amelia’s body has never been recovered. We will never see her again, but Amelia and her plane will be engraved in our memories forever.