Oregon’s High Flying Women

content courtesy of the Oregon Aviation Historical Society, Cottage Grove.

Did you know that Oregon is home to many pioneering, record-setting women aviators?  To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re sharing these stories to shed light these successes that uplifted women… quite literally.

Edith Foltz Stearns | air racer; wartime ferry officer; the country’s first female airline pilot
Born Edith Magalis in 1900 and raised in Texas, she became involved in aviation after marrying Joseph Foltz Jr, a World War I aviator, who had a small barnstorming operation at Swan Island (the same site where several other women earned their pilot’s license at the Rankin School of Flying).  She soloed in 1928 and soon determined to set endurance records.

In 1929, Edith and her Alexander Bullet entered the Women’s Air Derby, the “Powder Puff” race between Santa Monica and Cleveland.  She also earned a commercial pilot license, the first woman in the Northwest and only the fifth in the nation to do so.

At the onset of World War II, Edith was teaching CPT cadets at Swan Island.  At opportunity arose to join Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary, a group of civilian pilots who took up ferry roles to free up others for combat duties.  She was one of just 25 American women to be accepted by the ATA.  After the war she remained active in aviation as an instructor of Navy cadets and a member of the 99s.

Sadly, in 1956 Edith succumbed to cancer.  That year the Portland Oregonian remembered her as “probably Oregon’s most famous woman flier.”  Her many years in Oregon did much to advance aviation in the state and as well as women’s prospects in the field.

Mary Riddle | accomplished Native American pilot and parachutist
Did you know that Oregon was where one of the first Native Americans earned a pilot’s license? Mary Riddle overcame daunting barriers and achieved success. Her feats speak to her remarkable inner strength, tenacity, and drive.

Born in Bridgeport, Washington as a member of both the Clatsop and Quinault tribes, Riddle lost her mother when she was just four years old.  She was raised in a convent in Beaverton, Oregon- a hub of aviation innovation.  Nearby was the Tex Rankin School of Flying, the largest flying school in the country for a time.  Rankin encouraged training women pilots, and Riddle was no exception.  Riddle earned her pilot’s license at Tex’s school, and subsequently earned her limited commercial license in Oklahoma.  She joined a Seattle-based “air circus” and worked as a barnstormer and air show performer all over the country.  As she told the Oregonian in 1975: “I made 40 exhibition parachute jumps.  Those were the years when the airfield were being developed all over, and towns had us put on shows to open airports.”  Riddle continued applying herself as a pilot.  Though she struggled with a bout of depression, Riddle persisted as usual, and finally earned her transport license.  In the same Oregonian interview, she related how she “worked as an aircraft inspector for the War Department” and “went to an Army engineering school.”  

Mary Riddle kept flying for decades, a true trailblazer for her time.  

Hazel Ying Lee | first Chinese-American women to fly for the US Military
Portland, Oregon is home to this trailblazing female aviator who took her first flight when she was just 19 years old. In 1932, she received her pilot’s license at a time when less than 1% of American pilots were women. She was a pioneer in women’s aviation during the 1930’s, and after the attack at Pearl Harbor, she was one of the 1000 women who put their civilian lives on hold and joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program.

In 1944, Hazel joined the elite group of women who flew fighter planes. She and other women transported thousands of fighters (also called “pursuit” aircraft) as they poured out of American factories. The women pilots flew over 70 different kinds of aircraft. Hazel Ying Lee died as a result of a mid-air collision while landing her P-63 at Great Falls, Montana (one of 38 members of the WASP to die in service). Three days later, her family learned that her brother Vic, serving in the US Tank Corps, was killed in combat in Europe.