MEET AMELIA EARHART—MY COUSIN

by Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D. Thousand Oaks, California November 10, 2006

I. “COUSIN AMELIA”

1—AE Portrait from Poster

I hope to bring to you some words about a person with whom all of you are acquainted, Amelia Earhart. The world knew her as that astounding aviatrix, who, despite the social code for women of her day, dressed in the slacks, shirt and scarf of a pilot, and accomplished amazing feats of endurance and distance in a plane. This is why she is called “The First Lady of the Skies.”

The mother of Amelia Earhart and my grandmother were second cousins and were very close. My grandmother, who was a prolific letter writer, said that she and Amelia’s mother corresponded almost weekly. We knew Amelia Earhart just as “cousin Amelia.” A photograph of her, signed when she gave it to my mother and father in June, 1935, stood on top of our piano in our home before it was stolen years ago. I remember seeing it daily when I was young, the picture of a kindly, pleasant face returning my smiles. I want to tell you some things this evening about Amelia Earhart and her family that, perhaps, have never before been said in public outside of the circle of her relatives.

For us, it was always “Cousin Amelia,” but then our extended family had many “cousins.” In 1937, after “Lady Lindy” had taken off in the Lockheed twin-engine plane on her last adventure, a flight around the world, the whole attention of the family was concentrated on her progress from continent to continent. When she went down and drowned near the tiny island of Howland in the Pacific, her relatives were brokenhearted. We had lost a delightful, charming, endearing member of the family. Yes, she had shaken hands with presidents and had had tea with kings and queens, but, to us, she was the kind, gentle, refined “cousin” beloved by all.

II. AMELIA’S REMARKABLE FAMILY

2—Amy Otis and Edwin Stanton Earhart, 1895

Amelia Earhart was born into a family that was already remarkable. Her father’s father, the Rev. David Earhart, was a courageous pioneer Lutheran pastor, the second Lutheran clergyman to come to the Kansas Territory. He came from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Synod, in 1857, locating in Sumner three miles south of Atchison with the “Free Staters,” who were trying to shift the Territory from slavery to free. He organized churches throughout the eastern and northern parts of the Territory. Every three weeks he made a circuit ride of about one hundred fifty miles, riding in a two wheeled, springless cart drawn by a pony. This he did before there were roads through the wilderness, or bridges over its often-turbulent streams.1

3—Five Generations: Evan Walker Tonsing/Ruth Martin Tonsing/Ida Challiss Martin, Mary Ann Harres Challiss/Maria Grace Harris (taken in the parlor of the Otis home in Atchison 1895, where Amelia Earhart will be born two years later).

Amelia Earhart’s mother’s father, Alfred Otis, was just two generations from the fiery James Otis (1725-1783), whose “Writs of Assistance” against the British was called by John Adams the “opening gun of the Revolution,” where America gained its independence.

I have a copy of a letter that the mother of Amelia Earhart, Amy (she was also named “Amelia”), wrote to my grandmother, Ruth Tonsing in 1942,2 that their great grandmother, Maria Grace Harres, shown here, lived “early enough to remember being lifted up on her father’s shoulders above the crowd gathered in the streets to see [President George] Washington drive by for the opening of Congress.”3

In this same letter, Amelia’s mother also recalls that their “Grandfather Harres was one of the prominent businessmen of Philadelphia invited to ride on the first railroad train run out of the city” [about 1830]. It only covered about ten miles in this trip, was of course a wood-burner and an open affair, so they could jump out easily if it exploded or went too fast. Their “Great Grandmother never expected to see him again when he left the house to board the train,…”4

My grandmother, Ruth Tonsing, told me that when great grandfather Harres left for this ride, great grandmother Maria Grace had all of the shutters of the house closed and the clocks stopped. She donned black clothes in mourning, since she thought it impossible that one could travel twelve miles an hour and live! Amy Earhart wrote that, “he arrived safely after several hours, and felt there was a future for such a mode of travel.”5

4—Otis Family, Atchison, 1908.

1 H. A. Ott, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Kansas (Topeka, Kansas: F. M. Steves & Sons, pp. 17-19. Rev. Earhart also showed “dogged perseverance,” according to Ott, when he, alone, opposed the founding of a Lutheran Synod in Kansas and Missouri in which, under the pressures of Calvinist legalism, fundamentalism and low opinion of the Sacraments, the historic Lutheran confessions would be altered. Through his strong convictions, integrity and persuasion, he was able to shift the direction of the organizing convention, and the unaltered Augsburg Confession was adopted. Ibid., pp. 27- 29. 2 Amy Otis Earhart to Ruth Martin Tonsing, Berkeley, California, April 8, 1942. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. The father of Amelia’s mother, Alfred Otis, was elected judge of the United States District Court, was president of the Atchison Savings Bank, and was Chief Warden of Trinity Episcopal Church.6 He loved adventure and wanted to see everything thoroughly. He explored California in the mid-1800’s by horse carriage and stagecoach, probably passing through what became a century and a half later San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, Long Beach and Los Angeles on the “El Camino Real,” that is, just a few miles from where we are today. He even sailed the almost eight hundred miles down the California coast, stopping in various ports. Amelia’s mother was sorry that her father did not live to see Amelia fly. She wrote that, “I feel sure Amelia would have had him in the air and enjoying it, had he been here when she began to fly, but Mother might have waited longer to take to the air…”7

5—Amy Otis and Ed Earhart

Amelia’s mother, too, Amy Otis Earhart, was also remarkable. What is not generally known is that she was the first woman to have climbed to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado, an altitude of 14, 110 feet.

III. AMELIA EARHART’S YOUTH

6—Otis/Earhart House, Atchison, Kansas

Amelia was born in 1897 (not 1898 as some biographers have it) in Atchison, Kansas, in the home of her grand parents, Judge Alfred and Amelia Otis, where her mother had gone for her “confinement.” The high bluffs of the Missouri River as it passes through Atchison, there were two dwellings, with the grand house of Dr. William C. Challiss, the first physician in the Territory of Kansas, on the south, and, the white, brick and frame “Gothic” Otis house to the north. It has seven bedrooms, and has been owned since 1984 by the “Ninety-Nines,” the women’s flying organization of which Earhart was one of the founders. She was born in the upstairs southwest room. The room in which she slept, however, is on the north east, facing the Missouri River that flows below the high bluffs. This house in Atchison is now open to visitors, and, in that room one can see the oak, rolltop desk given to the museum by her sister, Muriel, her hope chest, a formal gown and a bathing suit she had worn.

7—AE in Baptismal Gown.

Shortly after she was born, the infant Amelia Earhart was brought to Trinity Episcopal Church to be baptized. Here she is on that day, wearing her long, baptismal gown.

8—Amelia and Muriel Earhart as Infants.

6 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/childhd/main.htm (March 22, 2001). 7 Amy Otis Earhart to Ruth Martin Tonsing. Amelia was named after her mother, Amelia, always called “Amy,” Otis Earhart, and her two grandmothers, Amelia Harres Otis and Mary Wells Earhart. Her younger sister, Murial, however, had difficulty in pronouncing her name, so she received the nickname, “Meelie.” Nicknames abounded in the families. Amelia’s playmates, who lived several doors down Terrace Street, were Lucy and Kathryn Challiss, which Amelia and Muriel called “Tootie” and “Katchie.”8

9—AE and Cousins on Terrace Street, Atchison.

Alongside this house was a street, another house, and then the large, brick, Italianate home of my grandmother, Ruth Tonsing, daughter of Colonel John A. Martin, a Civil War hero, early Mayor of Atchison, and later Governor of the State of Kansas.9 When Amelia’s parents moved to Atchison from Kansas City, Kansas, in 1898, Amelia spent the summers with her parents in Kansas City, and the winters in Atchison, where she would run over to play with my older aunts and uncles.10 I was told by my grandmother that she liked to sit on the swing seat on the front porch and make it go higher and higher, up over the porch rails.

Another cousin, Beatsie Challiss Laws, recalls that Amelia “baby-sat” my father and his twin sister, Ida, racing as fast as she could, pushing the double baby carriage up and down North Terrace Street, alarming the family who expected to see the babies fly out of the vehicle! Even when a very young girl, Amelia was interested in anything mechanical. She devised and built a trap to catch stray chickens.11 My aunt, Ida Denton, frequently mentioned that no clock was safe in the house with Amelia, because she would have it down and its parts scattered all over within an instant, examining how they worked. She could always get it back together and going just as quickly, however.12

10—AE, youthful with ribbon in hair.

Amelia perceived that boys had greater freedom and more activities in which they could participate, and questioned why that was so. She said that she liked “all kinds of sports and games,” even those society deemed suitable only for boys.13 Amelia’s mother also thought that her daughters should have comfortable play clothes, and usually dressed them in “bloomers,” like our “gym suits,” rather than the long, full dresses then thought proper for young girls. Some people in Atchison, however, were scandalized by such shocking dress for the young ladies.

My older aunts, uncles and cousins told me about the wonderful times with Amelia—the piles of toys to be played with hidden under the staircase inside of the

8 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.cor/funfact/funfact.htm (March 22, 2001). 9 1884-1889. 10 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/childhd/main.htm (March 22, 2001). 11 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/childhd/main.htm (March 22, 2001). 12 Ida Tonsing Denton, South San Francisco, California, Thanksgiving, 1973. 13 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/childhd/main.htm (March 22, 2001). house. While Amelia and her sister were not much for dolls, they had a pair of jointed, wooden animals from which they would rarely part. Amelia had wood donkey she called “Donk,” and her sister had an elephant she called “Ellie.” The girls also had a pet dog, a large black one that they named, “James Ferocious,” because he was often hostile to strangers. One story that is not commonly known is that once Amelia found a dog shot dead. She was furious about its death and buried it under a tombstone with the impassioned epitaph: “Only a dog, yes, but more of a man than his murderer.”14

11—AE and Cousins, with Barn in Background over Missouri River, Atchison.

The sisters loved horses, and, since they could not own some, they played with imaginary ones. Amelia’s was a beautiful Arab palomino called Saladin, and Muriel’s was named Beezlebub. They also created two imaginary playmates called “Laura” and “Ringa,” who accompanied them in all sorts of adventures. In addition, Amelia created a tribe of imaginary, black creatures that she called “Dee-Jays.” She described them as a “cross between a Krazy Kat cartoon and a jabberwocky.” These little creatures were quite useful for Amelia as they could be blamed for her own misconduct, such as talking out of turn, eating the last piece of candy, or when something turned up lost.”15

Her imagination also extended to the naming of the twin maple trees in the front yard of her grandparents home in Atchison. One she named Philemon, and the other, Baucis. These names she had gotten from her reading of the Greek classic myths which told of Philemon and his wife, Baucis, who, unknowingly, entertained the gods Zeus and Hermes in their poor home. As a reward for their hospitality, the gods changed their small cottage into a magnificent temple.16

They also had various contraptions which Amelia and the cousins would ride. Their uncle, Carl Otis, who was the youngest of Amy Otis’ brothers, was a playmate of the sisters. They called him “Uncle Nicey.” He built for them a leg-propelled merry-go- round they called “The Flying Dutchman.” It consisted of a board about twelve feet in length that had a hole in the center that fit over a peg in a stump. This the girls would whirl as fast as they could.17

They also built other wheeled devices that they rode “lickety-split” through the alley behind the Otis and Challiss houses. Not all of the cousins were brave enough to accompany Amelia in these escapades, however. But, Carl Otis, Amelia’s maternal uncle, as well as my uncle Evan and aunt Orpha, were usually present as they were of the same ages as Amelia and her sister. Another cousin, Jack Challiss, with whom I spoke in Los Angeles a little over a decade ago, didn’t care to participate in these risky adventures, however.

14 Joanne M. Sheehan, “Flying High in Atchison,” Kansas, Vol. I, No. 1, p. 3. 15 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.cor/funfact/funfact.htm (March 22, 2001). 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. After the family’s visit to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the cousins and sisters built a roller coaster in their backyard that would launch them down the alley. For Amelia the steep, brick streets and alleys that went around these houses in Atchison were an open invitation for the invention of all sorts of vehicles to see how fast, far and daring one could go without spilling the giggling contents onto the pavement.

IV. AMELIA EARHART’S BACKGROUND

12—High School Picture.

Amelia lived in Atchison from 1898 to 1907, when her family moved first to Des Moines, Iowa, then St. Paul, Minnesota, then, Springfield, Missouri, and, finally, Chicago.

13—AE High School Graduation Picture.

Amelia entered a private college preparatory school where her favorite activity was reading. However, her independent nature often got her into trouble.18

14—Ed Earhart with AE.

In her youth, Amelia’s father, Edwin Earhart, was a railroad lawyer and head of the Claims Department, and was on the road a good deal of the time. When he could, he took the girls with him and they enjoyed the adventure. He did take a drink occasionally on the road, and, in time, that led to problems both in his work and at home. Ed and Amy Earhart later divorced, and, after years of alienation, the father and daughter made up and were quite close.

15—Sam Chaplain.

Amelia loved poetry, and even wrote some poems. In 1920, Amelia Earhart was engaged to, Sam Chapman, a New Englander she had met in Los Angeles when she was visiting her parents there. But, Chapman was more interested in a stay-at-home wife than a pilot, so the engagement did not last long. She composed a poem shortly after that called “Courage”:

Courage is the price which life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release From little things, Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, Nor mountain heights, where bitter joy you can hear The sound of wings.

18 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/childhd/main.htm (March 22, 2001). How can life grant us boon of living, compensate For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate Unless we dare The soul’s dominion? Each time we make a choice we pay With courage to behold resistless day, And count it fair.19

16—AE as Nurse’s Aid, Toronto, Canada, 1918

A notable component of Amelia’s personality was compassion. During World War I she took a course in First Aid and became a nurse’s aid in Spadina Military Hospital in Toronto, working ten-hour shifts with the wounded soldiers from the war front.20 Here she is relaxing on the balcony of the hospital, gazing out to the sky.

17—AE Portrait as Nurse’s Aid, Toronto, Canada, 1918

Always creative, she took the opportunity to change the monotonous meals for the men to varied, attractive and nutritious menus. Since many of the wounded were pilots, she also interviewed the men and learned handy tips on flying from them. Later, she helped finance a date fruit farm in Arizona for a former California mechanic who became ill with tuberculosis.21

18—AE and First Instructor, Neta Snook (L)

She became a pre-medical student in 1919, but, suddenly changed from studying medicine at Columbia University to go to Los Angeles to learn how to fly, working in the telephone office to pay for her lessons. She was tutored by Neta Snook, one of the very first women to earn a pilot’s license in the United States. Amelia spend as much time as possible hanging around the airfield listening to the more experienced pilots describe their exploits and techniques.

19—AE in Automobile Repair Shop Class.

She had had taken a course on automobile repair years earlier, so she already understood a lot about engines, and she seemed most happy when she was under a plane making repairs, covered with grease.

20—AE as New Pilot

19 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.cor/funfact/funfact.htm (March 22, 2001). 20 Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Amelia Earhart (Santa Barbara, California: Bellerophon Books, 1982), p. 12. 21 Nancy Shore, Amelia Earhart. American Women of Achievement (New York: Chelsea House Publications, 1987), p. 45. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to graduate from the Curtis School of Aviation, soloing in 1921. Here she is as a new pilot, the excitement showing in her face. Already, she has adopted a uniform of leather cap and goggles, fir-lined collar on a leather jacket, and, what I believe is a scarf tucked in around her neck. Later, the scarf became almost her signature. While her father was very hesitant about his daughter flying, especially after two of her crashes, her mother remained enthusiastic.

21—AE and Airplane Crash, 1921

With all of her savings and some financial help of her mother and sister, in 1922 Amelia Earhart was able to purchase a second-hand plane, the Kinner Canary, as a gift to herself for her twenty-fifth birthday. Shortly thereafter in the bright yellow plane Amelia Earhart was doing all kinds of acrobatics with the plane. Her father and sister attended one of the air shows in which Amelia participated at Rogers Field in Los Angeles in October, 1922, and, I’m sure, gasped as she soared up, disappearing for an hour. When she descended to the field, the announcer told the crowd on the loudspeakers that Amelia Earhart had just set her first record by flying to the highest altitude ever achieved by a woman, 14,000 feet.

This record was quickly broken by the pilot, Ruth Nichols. Here, in 1928, the two aviators meet. They had deep respect for each other and remained friends despite their rivalry.

22— AE with Amy Guest and Pilots in Wales., 1928.

Moving with her mother, Amy, and sister, Muriel, Amelia Earhart went to Boston in the spring of 1926, where she taught courses in English at the well-known Denison House for immigrants. The same year she joined the American Aeronautical Society. Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in May, 1927, and, shortly thereafter, Amelia became the first woman to cross that body of water but as a passenger.

23— AE in Uniform of Trans-Atlantic Flight.

The story is strange. It seems as if a wealthy, American-born British woman of London, Amy Guest, purchased the plane that Admiral Byrd had used, a trimotor Fokker, and had intended to fly it herself across the Atlantic Ocean. But, when her family strongly objected, she determined to have it flown across the Atlantic Ocean by two experienced pilots, but with a woman as “captain.”22 Guest insisted that the woman be an American, and that she be “of the right image.” When Earhart was contacted, she said that she hesitated only for a second before saying “Yes.” Ten days later she was in New York City to be interviewed by the well-known publisher, George Palmer Putnam. After hours of questions, she was taken on.23

24—“The Friendship in the Harbor of Burry Port, Wales, after the flight.

22 Muriel Earhart Morrissey, p. 23. 23 Ibid. While they had intended to take off in mid-May, 1927, fog surrounded Boston so that the flight was delayed until June 4. They moved up to Trepassey, Newfoundland, and prepared for the flight. Once more they were delayed for two weeks. Finally, on June 17th, they took off and flew 20 hours 40 minutes With William “Bill” Stults at the controls, Louis “Slim” Gordon alongside, Amelia Earhart rode in the back between the fuel tanks “like a sack of potatoes,” as she described it. She kept the log, filling it with her notes on the weather, altitudes, airspeed and compass readings. Here is a picture of the “Friendship” at Burryport, Wales, with the citizens of the town gathered to see this strange American craft.

25—Ticker Tape Parade, New York, 1928.

As the flight was extremely dangerous in 1928, the plane and its passengers were brought back to America by ship. Upon their return to the States, Bill Stults, Louis Gordon and Amelia Earhart were treated to a ticker-tape parade in New York. However, most of the attention was upon the thirty-year old Earhart. She was compared with Charles Lindbergh and became “America’s Flying Sweetheart,” and even “Lady Lindy,” according to the papers.

This trans-Atlantic flight of the “Fokker Friendship” also introduced Amelia Earhart to the world and began her international career. Magazines began to be filled with photographs of the pilot. Here she stands in boots, leather jacket, leather hand bag and goggles in hand.

She described this experience in a book, 20 Hrs. 40 Min., and toured the States in a new Avro Avian Moth plane to promote the book. A description of this tour was given by Ms. Bernice Hanson, a schoolteacher in York, Nebraska. On a fall day in 1928, after a stopover in Atchison, Amelia flew to Nebraska. She circled the field looking for the landing strip, and landed her plane smoothly in the newly mown pasture lined with white flags. She taxied over to the cheering crowd, which included all of the school children who had been dismissed from their classes to see this unusual event. Ms. Hanson said: “Miss Earhart was a stately looking woman with short blond hair and a ready smile. 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.”24

26—AE Speaking to Chicago’s Hyde Park High School, 1932.

The thrill of an appearance by the famous aviator was something like that of the Rock stars today. Here she is addressing Chicago’s Hyde Park High School, a school she had attended but from which she had not graduated. She received an honorary diploma in 1932, the occasion of this lecture in the school’s auditorium. As an educator, it is clear that she knew how to evoke a good response to a question of hers as she stood on the school piano in front to get closer to her audience.

24 http://www.kshs.org/features/feat797.htm (May 24, 2001). Her message during these barnstorming visits was especially to share her ideas of aviation and women. She called women to “strive for goals outside that which is platitudinous—and that is one of my best words—known as their own sphere.” She also responded to questions. To one she said: “I don’t believe in the philosophy of worry. Hamlet could never have been a good aviator—he worried too much.”25 With her close- cropped hair and confident gaze, she excited American women by possibilities of a more independent and fulfilling life.

27—AE in Pilot’s “Uniform.”

Amelia Earhart’s very practical pilot’s clothes became almost a “uniform” for her, making her one of the most identifiable women in the world.

28—AE in Casual Pose.

In or out of work dungarees or her pilot’s attire, Amelia Earhart was photogenic. Photographers loved to photograph the attractive woman. Here she is, coyly but confidently gazing out of the picture.

29—AE in White Blouse.

She appeared quite frequently in Vogue and other fashion magazines, where she was pictured quite stylishly in a hat with lace coming down over her eyes. Or, she was pictured with short hair, formal dress and pearls.

30—AE in Edward Steichen Photo.

Famous photographers sought to have her poise for them. This is a famous shot by Edward Steichen.

Amelia Earhart continued to fly, of course. In 1929 she finished third in the first “Women’s Air Derby” to be held. It was the commentator and comedian, Will Rogers, who coined the name of this contest, the “Powder Puff Derby.”26

31—AE at Purdue on Roof of Building.

With her great hopes for aviation, Amelia accepted a position at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1935, as a consultant in the Department for the Study of Careers for Women, what we would call “Women’s Studies” in today’s universities. When asked why she chose Purdue, she said: “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.” Her theme at Purdue was that, “Educators in general need to be more practical

25 http://www.kshs.org/features/feat797.hem (May 24, 2001). 26 http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.cor/funfact/funfact.htm (March 22, 2001). in their instruction. There has never been the synchronization between academic training and the economic world that there could and should be.”27

32—George Putnam Packing Near Bend, Oregon.

Her marriage with George Palmer Putnam in February, 1931, was happy. He made his proposal six times, the last time as Amelia waited in the Lockheed hangar as her plane was warming up. According to Muriel, her sister, she “simply nodded her head, then patted his arm and climbed quickly aboard.28 He encouraged her independence and flying by willingly paying for her planes and expenses and promoting her extensively. The couple lived in North Hollywood.

33—Lockheed Vega, 1932.

On May 20, 1932, the fifth anniversary after Charles Lindbergh’s flight, Amelia became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Here is her Lockheed Vega with extra fuel tanks and new engine before her flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. Besides the great endurance this took, with ice forming on her wings slowing her down, she did this with the manifold of her engine cracked, exhaust fumes flaming, both the altimeter and tachometer not working, a broken fuel gage, and gasoline dripping down her neck.

34—AE in Ireland after Trans-Atlantic Flight (1932).

Here is Amelia Earhart poising with her plane after she had completed her Trans- Atlantic flight. She had landed in a meadow outside Lundenderry, Ireland, scaring the cows. Now these poor cows had to contend with reporters and crowds that came to see the famous flyer.

35—AE at Buckingham Palace.

She met many kings and queens, as well as other state leaders as a consequence of her amazing flights. Here she is coming out of Buckingham Palace in London after meeting the Prince of Wales.

36—1828 Dedication of Wright Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

One of her thrills was to meet one of the first humans to fly a self-propelled airplane. Here she is at the dedication of the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with Wilbur Wright, one of the two brothers who created the modern plane.

Earhart was the first person to make a solo flight from Burbank to Mexico City, and the first from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey. She made the latter 2,100 miles

27 Ibid. 28 Muriel Earhart Morrissey, p. 35. in 14 hours of flight. Here she is being greeted in New Jersey. Amelia Earhart made many astonishing flights and held many distance and speed records, crossing the United States solo, nonstop.

She even flew an auto-giro, the predecessor of the helicopter that had four rotors over the head of the pilot and could take off and land without a runway. Sponsored by Beechnut Packing Company, this experimental plane she flew to a height of 18,415 feet, another international record for both men and women. She was greatly interested in the development of commercial aviation, and served for a time as an officer of the Luddington Line which operated one of the first regular passenger services between New York City and Washington, D.C. In January, 1935, she made the first solo Pacific crossing from Hawaii to California.

When asked why she did not fly from California to Hawaii, she joked that, given the limits of navigation at that time, it would be easy to miss the islands flying west. But, she couldn’t miss California flying from the islands. Looking back now, we sense the tragic irony of her words.

37—AE and Charles Lindbergh with the Romanian Minister, 1933.

For her many achievements, the French Senate conferred upon her the “Cross Of The Legion of Honor,” and the distinguished “Aero Club of France” medal. In Rome, the Pope received her, and, in Brussels, King Albert presented her with the “Cross Of The Order Of Leopold.” Here she is with Charles Lindbergh, being honored by the Romanian Minister at a New York dinner in January, 1933. The future King Edward VIII of England danced with her until midnight after a grand banquet, until the band pleaded to be allowed to take a break!

38—AE wearing Golden Wings.

Back in the United States, she had dinner in the White House, and was the first woman, and one only of a few, to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, and was the first woman to receive the National Geographic Society’s Gold Medal. Here she is receiving that medal from President Herbert Hoover.

39—AE with the Roosevelts and guests, April, 1933.

Amelia Earhart became a close friend of the Roosevelts, especially Eleanor Roosevelt.

40—AE with Eleanor Roosevelt, April, 1933.

The President adamantly refused to allow Ms. Roosevelt to fly. However, despite her husbands ban and without his knowledge, after a dinner in the White House, mischievously, Eleanor took a night flight with Amelia over Washington, D.C., to her great delight. Here the two women chat with each other in April, 1933. Amelia Earhart’s enthusiasm for flight made her something of a prophet. In an interview for the March, 1933, Reader’s Digest article, “Marvels of Tomorrow,” Amelia Earhart looked to the future. I am sure that the readers of the magazine would have been astounded by her predictions that, soon, “airplane passengers will travel 600 miles an hour on inter-city routes; a thousand miles an hour on transoceanic routes, where the plane will rise to 50,000 feet to escape atmospheric friction. Such airplanes will ascend and descend vertically, and their molecular-energy motors will enable them to remain aloft indefinitely without refueling.”29

While nuclear fuel for aircraft is still much in the future, her other predictions from 1933 now seem commonplace. She anticipated retractable wings and flights following not longitude or latitude, but the “great circle” route crossing the poles. She said, “The design of future planes will follow bullet lines; once a certain speed is attained the wings can be drawn back into the body and released only for landing or taking off. Passengers sitting comfortably in hermetically-sealed, air-conditioned, sound- proof cabins, will soar from New York to Paris in a few hours’ time. The air liners will be guided automatically, by radio, through all weathers, direct to their destination; and,” says Amelia Earhart, “the risks of air travel then will be less than of motoring today.”30

V. AMELIA EAHART’S LAST FLIGHT

41—AE with Wiley Post, 1935

Discussion in 1935 was primarily over the plans for a flight over the Arctic Circle by two of Earhart’s good friends, Wiley Post and Will Rogers. Earhart and her husband, George Putnam, were guests at Will Roger’s Santa Monica ranch on August 11. It was just four days after that, that both Post and Rogers were killed when Post’s plane crashed in a fog in Alaska.

It was just a few weeks later that Earhart and Paul Manz, were persuaded to take part in a Los Angeles to Cleveland Bendix race. Her Vega was much slower than most of the other planes, and she had little chance of winning. Yet, they “cranked her up” and flew the plane to third place, winning $500, enough to cover expenses. She continued her lecture tours to raise more money for more projects. She made 136 speeches to 80,000 people just in 1935.31

42—Lockheed Electra Being Built.

In April, 1936, Purdue University raised $50,000 to purchase and modify a “flying laboratory” in order to learn more about the effect of altitude on the human body. They selected Amelia Earhart to supervise the project. Here she is inspecting the work

29 Reader’s Digest, XXII:131 (March, 1933), p. 31. 30 Ibid. 31 Shore, pp. 83-84. on the Lockheed Electra 10E. It’s wing span was 55 feet, it’s length 38 feet 7 inches, and height 10 feet 1 inch.32 After delaying her announcement, Earhart finally revealed that she was planning a flight around the world at a press conference in New York City in February, 1937. For this she had the Electra modified. The standard equipment was a 450-housepower Pratt & Whitney SB-3s (“Wasp Juniors”), but she installed a 550 horsepower S1H1s (“Wasps”). In addition, she placed additional fuel tanks in the passenger compartment, increasing the capacity from a standard 800 gallons of the wing tanks to 1150 gallons. That would give her a maximum range of 4000 miles.33

43—AE’s Crashed Plane in Hawaii.

She intended to head west from California, but, when the plane crashed after an aborted takeoff from Honolulu’s Luke Field, March 20, she reversed the direction as the seasonal weather changed.34

44—Map of World Flight, 1937.

Now, she intended to take off from Oakland, California, fly to Miami, Florida, then San Juan, Puerto Rico, Caripito, Venezuela, Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, Fortaleza and Natal, Brazil, then, leaving South America, crossing Africa from Dakar to Karthoum, and Karachi, Pakistan (today) and Calcutta in India, Rangoon and Bangkok in Thailand. From there she planned to fly to Singapore, then Bandoeng, Indonesia, going down to Darwin, Australia, then Lae, New Guinea. The last legs would be over the vast central Pacific to a tiny island called Howland 2,556 miles away, and from Howland to Honolulu 1900 miles distant, and then Honolulu to Oakland.35

45—AE, Paul Mantz, Harry Manning and Frederick Noonan.

Amelia Earhart had planned to have Paul Mantz (standing between Earhart and Herry Manning), a skilled professional pilot, for the flight. But, after an alcoholic binge of Mantz, she selected Fred Noonan (on the right), an expert navigator. Mantz respected Earhart and her abilities, but he had some disagreements with her. He worried that Putnam had her spending too much time in fundraising and too little time preparing for the arduous flight. He was even more alarmed when he learned that Earhart removed the 250-foot trailing radio antenna, which Earhart considered a nuisance.36 Further, he worried about her taking out the telegraph key, even though she reasoned that neither she nor Noonan knew Morse Code and it was extra weight.37 Thus limiting their contact with the outside world, the two took off.

46—AE at Controls of the Electra.

32 Dick Strippel, Amelia Earhart: The Myth and the Reality… (New York: Exposition Press, 1972), p. 167. 33 Ibid. 34 Shore, pp. 89, 91. 35 Ibid., pp. 90-91.; Strippel, p. 173. 36 Shore, p. 91. 37 Ibid., p. 92. After Earhart and Noonan left for the world flight, the newspapers and a Miami radio station broadcast bulletins about “Lady Lindy,” tracking her historic flight for the next 32 days. These reports were forwarded to papers around the world where the front-page headlines were read by millions of people. It seemed as if all of the world held its breath as she flew.

47—AE Taxies at Bandoeng, Java, June 21, 1937, with Hawker Hind Bi-Planes Behind.

After considerable mechanical difficulties and monsoon storms, Amelia Earhart made most of her hops in good time. Here Amelia Earhart’s Electra taxies at Bandoeng, Java, on June 21, 1937, with Hawker Hind bi-planes coming in behind her.

48—AE with Fred Noonan in Last Transmitted Photograph.

The weariness from physical and mental exertion must have been awful for Amelia Earhart. In one of the last photographs of Amelia Earhart, she yet retains her energetic gestures and engaging smile. Yet, the lines of fatigue are evident.

49—Lockeed Electra In Flight.

Yet, feeling her duty to keep on with her commitment to the flight, here she is taking off from the airstrip.

50—Howland Island

She was to fly at night over the Japanese islands to reach Howland Island, a speck two miles square in the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. However, she never arrived.

51—Atascadera Ship.

The ship, Atascadera, was specifically designated to maintain radio communications with Earhart. It received the last, faint transmission from her saying that she was flying back and forth trying to find the island.

52—Radio Hams Listening to AE’s Transmissions.

Her signals were even heard in the United States, where radio “hams” were following her flights.

53—Newspaper Accounts.

The newspapers recorded her disappearance on July 2, 1937, some holding out hope that she would be found. But, she never was. Amelia Earhart’s disappearance near Howland Island(a little over 69 years ago), ended an illustrious career, one that could have had many more discoveries and adventures. 54—AE in front of Plane.

Concerning this last flight, I remember a visit in the early 1950’s to my grandmother, Ruth Tonsing, by Amelia’s mother, her sister, Muriel Grace Earhart Morrissey, and Lucy Challiss, another cousin and life-long, close friend. The “grownups” talked a while around the kitchen table in the Tonsing house while we kids played in the yard.

As the four women came outside and walked to the alley behind the house where they had parked, I went over to speak to them. I had just read in the newspapers that someone was saying that Amelia was a spy for the United States, and was actually on a mission to identify Japanese military positions. I mustered all possible boldness of a twelve- or thirteen-year-old and asked Lucy Challiss (in those days, children did not address their elders by their first name, but, with cousin Lucy, I felt very comfortable in doing so): “Lucy! Tell me! I want to know! Was Amelia a spy?” I remember her stopping suddenly, turning to me directly, and responding quite firmly, “I was closer to Amelia, and know her better than anyone else. She was certainly not a spy. That would have gone against everything that she was trying to do. She wanted so strongly to prove that a woman could fly around the world”—and these are her exact words—“that she would not compromise that mission for anything!” And I believe her!

With her words, Amelia’s mother and sister nodded their heads in agreement. Several times in the years after that I asked my grandmother what the women talked about during that visit. She said that, among a number of things, they had talked about Amelia’s going down at sea. My grandmother insisted that Amelia’s mother believed for some years that her daughter would return, and kept her things as she had left them. However, in the end, Amy Earhart believed that Amelia had simply drowned at sea.

55—AE on Electra Plane.

There have been many articles and books by those who seem obsessed with strange theories about her disappearance, but, the consensus in the family has always been that “Cousin” Amelia simply crashed and drowned.38 Amelia Earhart’s sister, Muriel Earhart Morrissey, wrote in 1982 that:

38 Of the books and articles about Amelia, there are too many to comment on here. I have met some of the authors at the commemorations in Atchison. At the last festivity a panel of ten spoke, some with apparently no credentials and little historical discipline in their biographies of Ameila. As an historian myself, with a Ph.D., I am very suspicious of the rather bungled attempts to develop provable results, such as James Beeby, Jr., who is so emotional about his subject as to lack any historical perspective, Mary Vesta Nickerson from Maxwell, Nebraska who wrote a novel about a passionate love affair between Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, and Art Parchen, a retired businessman from Overland Park, Kansas, who proposes all sorts of conspiracy theories about Amelia’s disappearance. Upon hearing these authors speak, one expected theories of abduction by space aliens. There were some who’s work is better founded in historical research and exploration of the various islands upon which Amelia possibly landed, such as Bill Prymak, founder of the AES, Ronald T. Reuther, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, Pat Ward, a pilot and member of the Ninety Nines of Ivanhoe, Texas, and Donald M. Wilson, author of Amelia Earhart: Lost Legend, who tries to prove that she was We like to have our mysteries solved; I wish I could satisfy all of us by producing an unimpeachable solution. That I cannot do, and, at this point, I believe no one can. In concurrence with many who sail the beautiful and fickle Pacific and who now fly over her waters, I agree with Commander Thompson’s theory that Amelia’s plane was submerged within seconds after her last radio message and within a hundred miles of Howland Island. The Electra, shattered by the impact with the high seas, sank with her passengers trapped in the twisted cockpit. In a deep abyss of the ocean’s floor, the wreck will lie, a hostage of the sea, until one of the world’s nuclear submarines may someday resurrect it.39

However bold and determined Amelia was, my aunt, Ida Denton, insisted that she remained refined, very cultured, and always poised. She had read quite widely, had taught English as a professor in Boston, and wrote poetry and essays which appeared in various journals and newspapers. As “Lady Lindy,” she was photogenic, always quotable, and beloved by journalists. Yet, no matter the amount of national and international attention she received, to her kin she remained simply “family,” our “cousin.”

VI. COMMEMORATING AMELIA EARHART

56— Otis House, Atchison

There have been many ways in which Amelia Earhart has been commemorated. On July 24, 1963, her birthday, a commemorative eight-cent airmail stamp was issued by the U.S. Post Office in Atchison. The Earhart Light was raised on Howland Island to send a beam of light every four seconds across the Pacific Ocean. A life-sized statue of her stands in downtown Atchison, Kansas, raised there in 1981.

Her birth house in Atchison, the Otis mansion, was dedicated July 26, 1997. In it are found dozens of books on Amelia Earhart, and some items associated with the flier’s life. The biggest celebrations of the life of Amelia Earhart are in Atchison, Kansas, where, yearly since 1997, the city has mounted a tremendous commemoration. The streets are blocked, shuttle buses transport people to a fair and to the sites associated with the flier. A big cake is cut in front of the statue of Amelia, the Amelia Earhart Airport has vintage planes arranged for view. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church where the Earhart grandparents were members has commemorative services, as does Trinity Episcopal

captured in Saipan and thrown in jail where she was killed. Yet, none were willing to allow the simplest and most plausible idea that Amelia Earhart simply missed her mark, ran out of fuel, and went down at sea. It was evident that the pilots in the audience were more persuaded by the latter, especially several members of the Ninety Nines who rose to speak. In the end, I follows “Ockam’s Razor,” in which the simplest explanation is always most likely. 39 Muriel Earhart Morrissey, p. 47. Church in which Amelia was baptized. One can view the baptismal records in its sacristy.

Family gatherings, speeches, parades, street dancing, regattas in the Missouri River, formal banquets with notables from around the world, children’s workshops, and one of the biggest, loudest fireworks display, make it a grand, festive event for the some 40,000 people hosted by the little town of 16,000.

Atchison’s airport is named for the flier, as this plaque at the entrance to the hangers shows.

Outside that town, in a field near the cemetery in which her family is buried, a huge “earthwork” was carved in 1996 by Lawrence, Kansas artist, Stan Herd into the grass of the hillside. It shows Amelia in profile, dressed in her leather cap and goggles, her famous scarf flying in the wind behind her. There is also the “International Forest of Friendship,” with trees from all fifty states and thirty foreign countries. There are trees that came from George Washington’s home, trees from Amelia’s grandfather’s farm, and some trees grown from seeds that flew to the moon. Every third weekend in June, the Ninety-Nines host a celebration for “anyone interested in aviation or Amelia Earhart. About two hundred women pilots get together annually for this event.40

A few years ago one could purchase “Amelia Earhart” luggage, “If You Have an Instinct for Quality,” it says. It is both “For Men and Women,” according to the advertisement. That luggage was advertised with a slinky model in December, 1971, as “Stripes by Earhart: Shockingly Inexpensive.” It says: “It has all the features that have made Amelia Earhart Luggage famous and comes in the most wanted sizes and colors. Stripes by Earhart. It’ll stand out in a crowd.” (I guess that “sex” still sells!)

Television has had a fascination with Amelia Earhart. In October, 1976, a three- hour NBC drama features Susan Clark as Amelia Earhart.

Public Broadcasting System also presented a documentary investigating the “myth” of Amelia Earhart.

57—Giant Statue of AE in Kansas State Capital.

There is also a giant statue of her, one and one-half times life size, sculptured by Peter Felten of Hays, Kansas, was raised beneath the dome of the Topeka State Capital building August 20, 1981, with my father and mother representing the family. It stands along with President Dwight David Eisenhower, Emporia publisher William Allen White, and Kansas’ governor and senator, Arthur Capper. However, this statue is greatly distorted and impossibly thick, and one could not tell that it was intended to depict Amelia Earhart unless one read the legend attached below it. Here, my mother, Dorothy Tonsing, stands by the statue. My father and mother represented the Earhart family for the dedication of the statue.

40 Joanne M. Sheehan, “Flying High in Atchison,” Kansas, Vol. I, No. 1, 1997, p. 5. 58—Ninety-Nines

I would propose that one of the most important memorials to Amelia Earhart comes from an institution founded by Amelia Earhart and other women pilots. It is called the Ninety-Nines since there were 99 charter members. Members of this Organization of Licensed Women Pilots, organized in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as its first president (1929-1933), sponsor scholarships for a large number of women, thus making a profound impact upon our nation today. Here, Earhart poses with some of the women of the Ninety-Nines in 1929.

A number of these women have flown the route to commemorate the 1937 flight of Amelia. Steve Fossett, the fifty-eight year-old American completed a solo flight around the world in a hot air balloon on November 21, 2003. Ann H. Pellegreno gave my father a set of the flight covers she carried on her world flight in a Lockheed 10E in 1967. These are postmarked at the stops Amelia made around the globe. I was delighted to meet some of these pilots, including Linda Finch, the recipient of the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award. In 1997 she flew around the world in a Lockheed Electra 10E, the same make and model as Amelia’s. As a successful professional in the health care and retirement industry, she has been active in her educational program, “You Can Soar,” and has reached some 72 million students, encouraging them to pursue their dreams, that the sky is no longer the limit.

59—Glendale Amelia Earhart Library

In Glendale, California, the city has named the public library after Amelia Earhart. It has a collection of books by and about Amelia Earhart, as well as some artifacts.

60—Glendale Statue of AE

Outside this library in Glendale stands a nine-foot high statue of her of glistening bronze erected by the Zonta Club on January 22, 1971. It is one of my favorite portraits of her.

61—Glendale Statue, Closeup.

The sculptor has captured the confident, kindly, yet focused face of Earhart.

62—Glendale Statue, Back.

The statue is one that faces the city and the people, a city that sponsored her flights.

VII. THOUGHTS ON AMELIA EARHART’S FIRST FLIGHT 63—AE as Child .

I think, however, that the importance of Amelia Earhart was not her last flight, but her first. I have been wondering when it was that Amelia Earhart originally thought of flying. Perhaps it was some cold morning looking out of her window in Atchison, Kansas, across the road and through the leafless fall forest that she saw a bird rise from a tree limb and glide and turn out across the ol’ Missouri River. Or, maybe it was when she was still younger, exploring the Kansas grasses which grow along the bluffs of the river that she spied even more wonders, for there are many things that fly besides birds— creepy grasshoppers, barrel-backed beetles, and also glossimer cottonwood seeds. Even spiders spin out long, thin threads to the wind and then ride them to places dimly imagined in the tiny brains behind their multiple eyes.

Perhaps Amelia was older when she read that humans had tried to fly—Leonardo da Vinci once invented a canvas cork-screw, which, however frantically hand-turned, moved nowhere. Maybe she read of the French who built balloons in the late eighteenth century and comical contraptions with wings in the nineteenth. And she would have read in the newspapers of Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, who made wings which now enabled humans to surpass even the birds.

Even more, I have been wondering when Amelia first wove these cottonwood seeds and spider webs into ideas which could take wing in reality. The beginning of flight, one must understand, isn’t the physical lift, the climb, the suspension over the abyss of atmosphere and earth. It’s in dreams. It’s when one envisions continents stitched together just as one sews patches together into quilts. It’s when one draws a finger around a school room globe making an imaginary line from one’s hometown to the ocean, and then beyond from ocean to other oceans. Amelia Earhart made her first flight not with metal wings and noisy propeller. She made it in her dreams.

But, if dreams, then what kind of fantasies were these which issued in such daring physical feats and flights? Dreams as we know them cannot devise such things as Earhart did. Dreams appear in the night. They fly out of the unconscious, colliding with one another, multiplying in fantastic flowers of fantasy, evaporating and reappearing in psychedelic colors and forms. Birds and beetles and corkscrew contraptions in these dreams become only horrible monsters.

It wasn’t night dreams that propelled Amelia Earhart to fly. It was not out of this dark delirium of shadows and veiled forms which flit about in the deepest recesses of the mind. It was the imagination, the daydreams which swirl before the eyes in spare moments of waking hours. Do not be too swift to dismiss daydreams, for these are the ones which we can shape, control, and direct. These we can mold and try in varying combinations and forms and arrangements. Night dreams need the arcane sorcery of mystics or psychiatrists to interpret. They are rarely predictive, prescriptive or even useful. Daydreams, however, we can guide or glide. We can turn them about in the sky and send them off into new directions. It is the imagination which lifts day-dream wings into the air, and day-dream flights from one Kansas town to other towns, from this continent to other continents, and from this earth to celestial bodies which exist in the imagination long before scientists locate their faint traces in slowly-exposed emulsions behind their telescopes.

VII. CELEBRATING AMELIA EARHART

We celebrate Amelia Earhart not as a dreamer, but as a day-dreamer, not as one who fastened upon the fleeting forms of the night, but as one who spun forth ideas in the day, one who shaped those day-dreams in her hands and then lifted them up into the air, into the realities of flight plans, instruments, propellers and wings. It was her daydreams that started upon the bluffs of the Missouri River in Kansas and took her to heights and distances beyond which other humans then scarcely dared to imagine.

We celebrate: but our celebration is empty if we only commemorate. Celebration must also embrace a pledge, and oath, that Amelia Earhart’s day-dreams will also unfold into dreams of our day, and that these dreams will, in turn, fly into dreams and realities in future days. Let the example of the courage and imagination of Amelia Earhart enable us to dream. And, mounting up upon the wings of our imaginations, let us dream even greater dreams, greater accomplishments, and greater flights of the human spirit.

64—AE Poster for Atchison, Kansas, “Amelia”

I wish to thank you for your attention.

Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Religion and Greek Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

ErnstF.Tonsing2006