Walking on Air (18 page)

Fieldwork for the program began in October 1935 and less than a year later
Time
magazine announced that fully 58 percent of some 16,000 proposed markers were completed. All states had approved the program with an average of 300 markers being painted per state.
⁸⁰

In a nationwide radio address in the spring of 1935, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt recognized Phoebe's achievement, naming her among “eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say that the world is progressing.” Also included in the list were Amelia Earhart, novelist Dorothy Canfield, social worker Jane Addams, suffragist Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Josephine Roche, New York settlement workers Lillian Wald and Mrs. M. M. Simkhovitch, industrialist Mary Dillon, and the late suffragist Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. These women, Mrs. Roosevelt said, “have been and are a constant inspiration to me.”
⁸¹
Columnist Mary Margaret McBride also included Phoebe in her own list of eleven women who “have improved the 8,760 shining hours of 1934 by making new highs in human endeavor.”
⁸²

With her air-marking program essentially complete, Phoebe was pleased to be able to release her women pilots to compete in the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race, a transcontinental race culminating at the National Air Races in Los Angeles.
⁸³
Established in 1931 by industrialist Vincent Bendix, the prestigious race attracted the top pilots. Jimmy Doolittle won it the first year. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to enter the Bendix in 1935; she finished in fifth place.
⁸⁴
As an added incentive to attract women, Bendix posted a special award of $2,500 for the female pilot who finished first regardless of her position in the race itself.
⁸⁵
While Phoebe was not an entrant, she was the
official representative for the National Aeronautical Association's Contest Board for the Bendix, and she enthusiastically encouraged her compatriots to take up the challenge.

The race was not until September. In early August, Phoebe was expecting Vernon to pick her up for a long-planned fishing vacation in Maine.
⁸⁶
After her return, she would campaign again for FDR. She knew that, given the restrictions of the Hatch Act that prohibited federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, she would have to resign her position. Nonetheless, as she wrote her congressman E. H. Crump, she would “consider it a privilege to do anything possible to help to bring about a victory for the Democratic Party.”
⁸⁷
Further, she hoped to return to the newly reelected administration in a better position. She had her sights on becoming the new assistant secretary of commerce for aeronautics.
⁸⁸
Her plans were in place; her future looked bright. But then “all the heavens caved in.”
⁸⁹

1. Phoebe Fairgrave, circa 1920, shortly after graduating from high school. Phoebe Omlie Collection.

2. Phoebe Fairgrave in front of her new Curtiss Jenny, 1921, with her pilot, Vernon C. Omlie. Phoebe Omlie Collection.

3. Vernon Omlie pilots the Curtiss Jenny as Phoebe Fairgrave, having just exited the cockpit, makes her way along the wing to a vertical strut. Photo series by P. W. Hamilton, photographer for the
Minneapolis Tribune.
Phoebe Omlie Collection.

4. Phoebe stretches up to grab hold of the upper wing.

5. Phoebe secures a handhold and pulls herself up.

6. With her toes hooked under a wire, Phoebe rides on top as Vernon puts the Jenny through a series of stunts.

7. After landing in a lake during an early parachute jump, Phoebe began wearing a partially inflated inner-tube in order to make herself more buoyant. Phoebe Omlie Collection.

8. The Phoebe Fairgrave Fliers featured her famous Double Parachute Jump. Phoebe Omlie Collection.

9. Phoebe Fairgrave and her Monocoupe
Chiggers.
Phoebe Omlie Collection.

10. Phoebe Fairgrave at a stop in her hometown of St. Paul during the 1928 Ford Reliability Air Tour. She was the only woman competitor in the tour. Minneapolis Public Library.