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Back in Europe she won France's Coupe Femina for the women's world's nonstop flight record on December 31, 1911, covering 158 miles in 178 minutes. In Florence, Italy, she was the only woman in a field of fourteen men and beat them all to win the King's Cup. In 1913 the French Government awarded her the Legion of Honor for her achievements and for the glory she brought to France.

She made her second visit to the U.S. in 1915, during which she tried to stimulate American interest in the Allied war effort. During World War I she became an ambulance driver and later the director of a military hospital.

Katherine Stinson, the fourth woman in the U.S. to obtain a pilot's liscense, was the oldest in a family of four prominent aviators. Her brother Jack was an early flyer, her brother Eddie founded Stinson Aircraft Company, and her sister Marjorie became an accomplished aviatrix in her own right.

Katherine first wanted to learn to fly to help finance another career. She dreamed of becoming an accomplished pianist but did not have enough money to continue her education in music. She read that aviators were earning substantial prize money for exhibition flights, and decided to try to earn money that way.