# Ten years on, they're dead. (Women aviators) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 28, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121 "2009-03-28T21:11:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/1 "2009-03-28T21:11:38Z")
A decade ago I bought a book called [_Women And Flight_](http://www.amazon.com/Women-Flight-Portraits-Contemporary-Pilots/dp/082122168X), a book profiling 36 contemporary female pilots. I read several chapters but never got around to finishing it. You know how it is; you get involved in something else, and time passes. I decided to pick it up again, and out of curiosity I googled the first pilot, Alaska’s first Inuit woman bush pilot Ellen Paneok. Turns out [she died last year](http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2008/080312paneok.html) at the age of 48. I wasn’t surprised that [Fay Gillis Wells](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Gillis_Wells) had died. She was born in 1908. It’s a pity she couldn’t have held out another five years. Had she made it to 15 October 2007 she would have been 99 years old; fitting for someone who was a charter member of the [Ninety-Nines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-Nines). Then I came upon [Victoria Van Meter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Van_Meter). I wonder what she’s up to nowadays? She’d be 27 now. Last March she shot herself. I probably should have finished the book when I got it. Ten years on, some of these people are gone. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/2 "2009-03-28T21:22:07Z")
I wonder, out of a random pool of a hundred people or so, how many will be dead in 10 years? How many of them will be aviators? I know one thing for sure. The only good aviators are NOT dead aviators. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/3 "2009-03-28T21:48:39Z")
Even odder - none of the 3 deaths listed were aircraft-related. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/4 "2009-03-28T21:51:34Z")
I believe that’s the book with Gayle Ranney in it, of Cordova Fishing and Flying. She’s still alive as of November — I received a thank-you note from her, around that time. I took a flight with her in a bush plane over the Stevens Glacier. (The thank-you note was for the thank-you gift that I had sent to her.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/5 "2009-03-28T23:27:27Z")
On the other hand, Evelyn “Mama Bird” Johnson, current record holder for most flight hours ever logged by a pilot, is still alive (last I heard) in Morristown, Tennessee. In November she’ll be 100 years old. She’s still the airport manager. Wow - 99 and still working! Is she in your book? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/6 "2009-03-28T23:34:17Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Is she in your book? No, but it sounds like she should be! Here’s a list of those included: Ellen Paneok - Alaskan bush pilot Linda V. Hutton - Captain, United States Navy Fay Gillis Wills - Aviation pioneer Marsha Ivins - astronaut Victoria Van Meter - student pilot Marty Goppert - Flying Circus pilot Patrice Clarke-Washington - Captain Krista Bonino - 1st Lt, US Army, Helicopter pilot Linn Buell - glider pilot Jean Ross Howard-Phelan - Aviation pioneer Mary Edna Fraser - Aerial artist Mayte Greco - Search and rescue pilot Florence Partlett - Airport operator Shannon Lucid - Astronaut Lori Love - crop duster Madge Rutherford Minton - WASP Kim Darst - Heilcopter pilot Patty Wagstaff - Aerobatic pilot Ida Van Smith-Dunn - Pilot Susan Pierce - Hang glider pilot Susan Still - Lt, US Navy, combat pilot and astronaut Mary Ellen Weber - Astronaut Gayle Ranney - Alaskan bush pilot Suzanne Ashbury-Oliver - Skywriter Yvonne McDermott - Pilot Betty Skelton-Frankman - Aerobatic pioneer Michele Summers - First Officer Troy Devine - Captain, USAF Evie Washington - pilot Bonnie Wilkens - Helicopter pilot Dorothy Aiksnoras-Vallee - First Officer Marilyn Bridges - Aerial photographer Doris Lockness - Flying octogenarian Eileen Collins - Lt Colonel, USAFand Astronaut Patricia Jenkins - Helicopter pilot Marsha Neal - Astronaut ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/7 "2016-06-23T22:55:16Z")
Here’s a list of women who were profiled in [the book](https://www.amazon.com/Women-Flight-Portraits-Contemporary-Pilots/dp/082122168X), who have slipped the surly bonds of Earth. [Ellen Paneok](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Paneok), first female aboriginal Alaskan to become a licensed pilot, died in 2008 at the age of 48. [Fay Gillis Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Gillis_Wells), aviator, journalist, and broadcaster, died in 2002 at the age of 94. [Vicki Van Meter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Van_Meter), youngest (unrated) pilot to fly east-to-west across the United States, and youngest female pilot to cross in either direction, committed suicide in 2008 at the age of 26. [Jean Ross Howard-Phelan](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2004/02/05/jean-ross-howard-phelan-dies-at-87/eb82f759-349a-4af6-8391-05c95ef26617/) was a pioneering helicopter pilot. She was 87 when she died in 2004. Florence Parlett, owner of Annapolis Flying Service, apparently died at 91 in 1997. [Lori Love](http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/aug/30/missing_pilot_was_adventurous_ku/) was a crop duster born in 1950. She disappeared on a ferry flight from Florida to South Africa after refueling in Accra, Ghana for a leg to Namibia in 2007, aged 57. [Madge Rutherford Minton](http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/web/minton_madge.htm), WASP pilot, was 84 when she died in 2004. Ida Van Smith-Dunn, African-American pilot and founder of Ida Van Smith Flight Clubs, Inc., died at the age of 86. Betty Skelton-Frankman was a land speed record holder and aerobatic pilot. She was 85 when she died in 2011. ---
**Author:** ![EDennen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EDennen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EDennen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/8 "2025-07-22T14:07:52Z")
A bit rude to make such a sweeping generalization … not all have passed and you really only mentioned 3 that have passed. My aunt is Dorothy Aiksnoras-Vallee. She is alive and well running her own farm in CT. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/9 "2025-07-22T15:37:23Z")
> [@EDennen](#): > > A bit rude to make such a sweeping generalization What sweeping generalization ? Johnny\_L.A didn’t say they’d all died (even though that may be implied by the thread title) , just the 9 which he has named (and the last post was 9 years ago..). Nice to know your aunt Dorothy is still around. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/10 "2025-07-22T15:45:40Z")
We’ve been flying around the Puget Sound zone a couple of times over the last few years and, each time, our puddle jumper planes were piloted by women. I know that you need to get in a certain number of hours before you can get a job in a larger craft so that seems promising. Not on the death side, that is, the flying side looks promising for women pilots. I’m doubtful that there’s a connection with bad outcomes, just coincidental ordering of the pilots landed you in a patch of ladies that had happened to keel off. ---
**Author:** ![EDennen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EDennen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EDennen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-years-on-theyre-dead-women-aviators/491121/11 "2025-07-22T17:06:22Z")
Sweeping implication from title. Exactly 😂