Amelia Earhart (2 page)

On July 24, 1897, Amelia Mary Earhart was born to Amy and Edwin Earhart. The birth took place at the home of Amy's parents in Atchison, Kansas, fifty miles northwest of Kansas City. She was nicknamed “Millie.” When Earhart was born, there were only forty-five states, and the principal personal mode of transportation was horse and buggy. Two and one-half years later a sister, Muriel, was born.

The marriage of Amy and Edwin was stormy. Though Edwin held down a job as a claims attorney for a railroad company, his income was somewhat meager. Amy, on the other hand, was used to a higher standard of living. Her father was Judge Alfred Otis, and the Otis family lived in relative luxury. The problem of not having enough money generated strife sufficient to ship Amelia and Muriel to the Otis home, where they were, for the most part, raised and educated. The sisters were enrolled in a private school in Kansas City.

From time to time, Amelia and Muriel would return to the home of their parents, but peace and harmony were in short supply. In addition to the problems associated with having too little money, Edwin had taken to drinking. Instability reigned, further abetted by the fact that Edwin was transferred often as a result of his job. In time he was fired, and the family income fell to nothing. In 1915, Amy and Edwin separated. Edwin's alcoholism was to have a profound effect on Amelia, one that surfaced often during subsequent years.

Amelia eventually graduated from Chicago's Hyde Park High School in June 1916, the sixth such school she attended in four years. By this time, she was known for her competence seasoned with a streak of independence.

Around the time Amelia graduated from high school, mother Amy received an inheritance that provided for a good living, and in time, she and Edwin were reunited and the family was living in Kansas City. In the fall of 1916, Amelia enrolled at Ogontz College in Rydal, Pennsylvania. Ogontz began in 1850 as the Chestnut Street Female Academy in Philadelphia. In 1883 it moved to the Elkin Park estate of financier Jay Cooke and was renamed Ogontz after a Sandusky Indian chief. In 1916, the institution moved to Rydal in the suburban Abington Township. Today, Ogontz is part of the Pennsylvania State University System.

It was while at Ogontz that Amelia began taking notice of women who excelled in positions normally dominated by males, women who were becoming doctors, lawyers, and bank presidents and running for political office.

During the Christmas holiday of 1917, Amelia traveled to Toronto, Canada, to visit sister Muriel, who was living there. It was in Toronto that Amelia first observed soldiers who had returned from World War I, many of whom were wounded and maimed. This impressed her deeply, and with a keen sense of commitment she undertook a Red Cross–sponsored course that would yield a qualification as a nurse's aide. When Amelia completed the requirements, she began serving at Toronto's Spadina Military Hospital.

For the most part, Amelia was involved in the menial yet important tasks of emptying bedpans, making beds, working in the kitchen, serving food, and washing patients. Caring for the war-wounded had a deep impact on the young woman, and she never forgot the experience.

While she was serving at the hospital, Amelia met a man who was an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. One day, he invited her to accompany him to an airfield outside of Toronto to watch planes taking off and landing. In her book
20 Hrs. 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship
, Amelia wrote that it was this experience that generated her “first urge to fly.”

The war had finally wound down, and Amelia returned to the United States in 1919. While her head was filled with thoughts of airplanes and flying, she enrolled in a premedical program at Columbia University in New York City. After completing one year at the university, Amelia decided to join her parents, who by this time were living in Los Angeles, California. She arrived during the summer of 1920. While in Los Angeles, Amelia and father Edwin attended an air show at Long Beach's Daugherty Field. Here, she confessed to him that she had always wanted to fly. In response, Edwin made arrangements for his daughter to be taken up in an airplane.

The following day after Edwin paid the ten-dollar fee, Amelia experienced flight for the first time. Before the plane landed, she made a commitment to herself that she was going to learn to pilot an aircraft. She began making plans to take lessons, and she was determined to receive them from a female pilot she had read about.

The pilot was Nita Snook, and she had an immediate and deep effect on Earhart. Snook agreed to take the young woman on as a student. To pay for her lessons, Amelia offered Snook some of the Liberty Bonds she possessed. Snook agreed they were sufficient to get far enough along in the lessons to make a determination whether or not her new student had any competencies as a flyer. Earhart took her first lesson on the morning of January 3, 1921, in a Kinner airplane, built by the Kinner Airplane and Motor Corporation.

Most of Earhart's time was now spent at the airfield absorbing the lessons provided by Snook, as well as in conversations with Bert Kinner, who designed the aircraft. In turn, both Snook and Kinner were impressed with their new student. After soloing, Earhart asked for and received instruction in flying-related emergencies. She practiced these for hours, according to some, and soon achieved the skill of her instructor. Somehow, in 1921 Earhart saved enough money from her job at a telephone company to purchase her own airplane, a Kinner Airster. What income she had remaining after paying her living expenses funded her weekend flying.

With her passion for flying dominating her activities, as well as her need to hold down a full time job, Amelia had little time for a social life. The few men she met were usually encountered at the air shows she attended with Snook. She had little time for the young men who, to her, seemed unfocused and irresponsible, and she was more taken with older ones. In time, Amelia was attending concerts and other outings with a man named Samuel Chapman, originally from Massachusetts and a graduate of Tufts University. Chapman, in fact, was renting a room at the home of Earhart's parents. In time, the two became quite close.

During late 1921, Amelia entered the Air Rodeo held at the Sierra Airdome in Pasadena, California. She, along with another female pilot named Aloyfia McLintic, were the featured flyers. Amelia made the decision to attempt a new altitude record for women. She accomplished this by ascending more than fourteen thousand feet.

Though Amelia was garnering some publicity as an accomplished aviatrix, she earned no money at it. In fact, she was comfortable in the notion that what she was doing was a sport, and the idea of making a living at it was foreign to her.

On May 16, 1923, Amelia was granted certificate number 6017 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. The certificate stated that she was certified as an “Aviator Pilot.” Of the thousands of such certificates that had been issued over the years, Earhart's was one of only about twenty issued to women. Interestingly, on her application Earhart listed her birthdate as July 24, 1898, making her one year younger than she was, a deception she was to maintain for the rest of her life.

In 1924, Amy and Edwin's oft-contentious marriage finally ended, and they were granted a divorce. Amy decided she wanted to move from Los Angeles to Boston, where daughter Muriel was attending college. Amy told Amelia that she would pay her tuition if she would return to Columbia and pursue her college education. Amy paid off the note on Earhart's airplane, and a short time later it was sold. With the money from the sale, Earhart purchased a Kinner automobile and drove her mother from Los Angeles to Boston. She then enrolled for the fall 1924 semester at Columbia University.

During the spring of 1925, Amy suffered some financial setbacks as a result of the deteriorating economy. Amelia left school and traveled to Medford, Massachusetts, to find a job. Once ensconced in her new residence, she joined the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic Association. Bert Kinner learned of Earhart's connection with a new airport near Quincy and offered her a plane to exhibit. In between demonstrations, said Kinner, she was free to fly the craft as much as she wished.

Samuel Chapman was apparently more enamored of Earhart than she was of him. He arrived in Massachusetts a few weeks after she did and landed a job at the Boston Edison Company. The two renewed their friendship, and a short time later Chapman proposed marriage. Not completely understanding Earhart's streak of independence, he explained to her that he would not tolerate a wife working outside the home. She turned him down. The two remained friends and continued dating, but it never went beyond that. As time passed, Amelia moved in and out of other jobs, including teaching foreign students in a university extension program and being a social worker.

On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh completed a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris. Overnight he became a national hero and was celebrated throughout the world. Earhart read the newspaper accounts of the flight and the intrepid flyer with interest, excitement, and fascination.

The following year Earhart turned thirty. She had grown into a woman of numerous competencies and accomplishments and held a passion not only for flying but also for adventure. She was confident that her flying abilities and her dreams could propel her to the heights reached by Lindbergh. The international stage was being set for her grand entrance.

I
n 1928, Amelia Earhart was employed as a social worker at the Denison House, a settlement residence in Boston. Denison House was a focal point for immigrants. Here, they were provided instruction in the English language, nursing, dancing, and other topics. Relief programs were established as well as activities for the children and clubs for the adults. Earhart, who served as a teacher and helped generate publicity for the organization, was paid sixty dollars per month.

In April of that year, Earhart received a telephone call from Hilton H. Railey. Railey explained he was calling on behalf of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and wanted to discuss the possibilities of her involvement in a flight that carried some amount of risk but offered incredible rewards. Amelia agreed to meet with Railey a few hours later to discuss his proposition.

Railey explained to Earhart that Admiral Richard E. Byrd's plane, a trimotor Fokker, was undergoing an intense mechanical examination and upgrade in Boston in preparation for a flight across the Atlantic. Byrd was a pioneering American aviator and noted polar explorer. The sponsors of the adventure desired to have an American woman involved in the project. During the early phases of planning for the flight, a Mrs. Frederick Guest was to be the female aviatrix. In fact, Guest, a wealthy native of London, had purchased the Fokker trimotor for the adventure. In the end, however, Guest decided it would be more appropriate for a younger woman to take her place.

The task of identifying and locating the appropriate female pilot to be involved in this adventure fell to George Palmer Putnam of the publishing house of G. P. Putnam and Sons. The publishing company had plans to commission an author to write a book about the landmark flight. At the time, Amelia Earhart had garnered an impressive level of visibility as a result of her flying accomplishments, one of a number of women involved in flying at the time. In addition, she was attractive, well spoken, and poised. She was, in short, a publicist's dream.

Earhart expressed her interest, and ten days later she found herself being subjected to an interview with the flight's sponsors at the offices of G. P. Putnam and Sons Publishing Company in New York City. Here she was introduced to George Palmer Putnam. The interview, as well as the beginning of her relationship with Putnam, was to forever change Earhart's path as well as the image of women throughout the world. It was also a catalyst that would lead to one of the greatest mysteries in history.

George Palmer Putnam II was born on September 7, 1887, in Rye, New York, a suburb of New York City near Long Island Sound. He was the grandson of and named after the publishing tycoon. Most people referred to George II as “G. P.”

Knowing that his older brother, Robert, would eventually assume control of the publishing business, Putnam decided to seek his fortune and his adventure elsewhere. With little money, he traveled to Bend, Oregon, where he found some satisfaction. There, he married Dorothy Binney, a native of Connecticut, and before long a son, David, was born. Putnam prospered as a businessman and publisher and was even elected mayor of Bend. In 1914, he was named secretary to Oregon's governor Withycombe.

In 1916, Putnam's father passed away. According to plans, brother Robert took over the publishing house. By this time, the United States had become heavily involved in World War I. In December 1918, Putnam enlisted in the army and was soon commissioned as an artillery officer. Not long afterward, Robert Putnam died as a result of the flu epidemic that swept the Eastern Seaboard, and G. P. returned to New York to become involved in the management of the publishing company. In large part because of his energy, enthusiasm, and keen business sense, the publishing house prospered over the next decade. During this time, Putnam honed the marketing and publicizing skills that were to serve him well for the rest of his life.

George Palmer Putnam II was also vitally interested in the movie business. He convinced film producer Jesse Lansky to back the making of Hollywood's first aviation movie,
Wings
, starring Clara Bow, Gary Cooper, and Buddy Rogers. It was also the first film to win an Academy Award. In addition, Putnam was instrumental in the publication of the book
We
, by Charles A. Lindbergh. It was a best seller and earned the publishing company a lot of money. With this particular success under his belt, Putnam was on the lookout for the next aviation best seller when he learned about Amelia Earhart.

Everyone present at the interview at the publishing house came away impressed with Earhart and lost no time in discussing a potential contract. After Earhart thanked everyone and was preparing to leave the office, Putnam offered to escort her to the train station. A few days after returning to Boston, Earhart received a phone call informing her that she had been accepted as part of the crew that would conduct the flight across the Atlantic.