Geraldine ‘Jerrie’ Mock has died at the age of 88.
She was the first woman to fly solo around the world, in 1964 in a 1953 Cessna 180.
My Mother knew her.
Mom & my older sister were both pilots.
It’s almost a shame she chose to return to the private life she had when she chose to do make the flight. She could have been a national hero and celebrity, and a role model for girls and young women still stuck in the 60’s, instead of just someone only aviation nuts ever even heard of. She let herself be promoted as a housewife with a cute hobby, not a pilot who also raised a family.
You can see the “Spirit of Columbus” hanging in the Smithsonian at Dulles, if you get there.
Have a wonderful last flight, Jerrie.
I don’t know if it influenced my late mother, but mom worked at Gibbs Flying Service in San Diego from the late-'60s into… the '80s? She got her pilot’s certificate, too; probably around 1969. If Jerrie was an influence on my mom, then she’s partly responsible for my growing up with airplanes.