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By the time she learned to fly, however, she loved it so much that she abandoned her thought of a career in music and devoted herself to aviation.

Finding an aviation school wasn't easy. Several that she tried folded before her instructions could begin. Finally she went to Chicago, where she joined Max Lillie's spring class at Cicero Field. She received her license on July 24, 1912, in a Wright B. She decided to wait a year before beginning exhibition flying because she was so young, only 16, but she continued practice flying.

In July 1913 she began her exhibition career in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from that time on flew in meets all over the country. 

Katherine became the first woman authorized to carry airmail, September 23-27, 1913, while she was appearing at the Helena, Montana, Fairgrounds, The Helena Postmaster had telegraphed the Post Office Department in Washington, D.C. requesting sanctioning of an airmail route from the Fairgrounds to the Federal Building downtown. Permission was granted, and the route was officially numbered 663,002. Katherine was sworn in as pilot, and in the four days she flew the route, she carried 1333 postcards and letters.