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[[left margin]]A-30 **THE EVENING STAR, Washington, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1954 Deaths [[/left margin]]

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WHEN AVIATION AND MRS. BRYANT WERE YOUNG—It was with this pusher-type airplane in 1913 that Mrs. Alys McKey Bryant made feminine history in the sky, doing stunts and setting altitude records.

'Moms' Bryant Is Dead at 74; Daredevil Flyer of Early Days
By Carter Gorski
Friends said that Mrs. Alys McKey Bryant was born with wings. She died in Washington Monday after 74 years of proving her friends were right.
A stocky 5-footer with irongray hair, she was known as "Moms" when she worked at National Airport during World War II, and as a vivacious daredevil brownette with intestinal fortitude during her flying days.
She spent her whole life trying to get together enough money to buy an airplane, because "that's the only sensible way to travel," she used to say. She had been a traveling saleswoman, professional deep-sea diver, masseuse, stunt flyer, test pilot, airplane mechanic and seamstress and even manufactured her own cosmetics under the name "Alys B." She was always optimistic when her luck ran out, her friends say, but something always happened to keep her dream from coming true.

Light Dream Came True.
Another dream did come true, however. In 1892 when she was 12, living on a prairie in her native Indiana, she dreamed a lot, she once said. She wrote a composition describing an imaginary flight in an airplane from the East to West Coast, never realizing such a thing would some day be an everyday affair.
Mrs. Bryant, who held the female altitude record of 2,900
ships under water and for carnival shows.
She developed her own formula for cosmetics after selling jewelry and cosmetics for various companies throughout the country. When her luck was low, she'd borrow $50 and turn out cosmetics herself and then peddle them.
Washington became her permanent home more than 20 years ago. From a front room of her home at 1213 V street S.E. she began selling cosmetics and jewelry, as well as corsets and magazines, and giving massages.

Got New Job in War.
But she couldn't stay out of World War II. She got a job at TWA at National Airport repairing the cowlings, exhaust stacks and manifolds of transport airplanes. She was in her 60s but she got the job so she could prove "I can do a better job around here than the men." She did, too, working 10 hours a day, besides eight on Sundays.
She'd watch her repair work put on the airplane. Then she'd pull herself up to her full 5 feet and salute the pilot, who always saluted back to "Moms." In all kinds of weather she met the pilots on their return flights, keeping a pot of coffee hot for them with her welding torch.
After the war she went back to her Southeast home to start work again on her dream.
She is survived by a brother and a sister. Burial services were private.

Transcription Notes:
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