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THE WASHINGTON POST and TIMES HERALD
Thursday, September 9, 1954

[[left margin]] Annacostia News - in the "Courier" March 6, 1953 [[/left margin]]

We have as a resident of Anacostia a little lady, Mrs. Alys McKay Bryant of 1213 Vee St. S.E. who has had a very eventful life. She is one of the early pioneers in aviation. She taught herself to fly in 1912. She flew a Curtiss pusher type open cockpit plane. She rebuilt her own plane out of rubbish and it flew! She was the first woman to fly in Canada before H.R.H. Prince of Wales and the late King George of England. Her husband John Milton Bryant was killed in an aeroplane accident in 1913 in Victoria, British Columbia. They were married only 10 weeks. She was in only one accident in 1913 in Seattle, Wash. She still suffers from the effects of this, but she has kept right on. She is a skilled aero-mechanic. In World War I she mechanic. In World War I she was mechanic for Benoist in charge of the navy dirigible department for Goodyear Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio. In World War II, was mechanic at National Air Transport, Inter-continental Division Flyers. She knew Tom Benoist Sander who flew the first passenger line in the world from 1914 to 1917. She became an Early Bird Flyer in 1932. This group is composed of the early flyers in the first thirteen years dates 1903 to 1916. She is very proud of her certificate. Her walls are covered with pictures of planes. She was the first woman flyer to fly over Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. She has assisted Dr. Paul Garber Curator of Smithsonia, Aircraft Division of Aeronautics in repairing better known antique planes. She was born in Indiana but is descended from a long line of McKays of Scotland, and related to Commodore Perry and Perry Rogers who made the first flight across the U.S., east to west, also a descendent of the Harris for whom Harrisonburg, Virginia was named. Wm. Henry Harrison was one of these ancestors. 

Alys Bryant Dies; Pioneer Woman Pilot

Alys McKey Bryant, one of the first women pilots and the widow of a daredevil with whom she barnstormed in the early precarious days of flight, died here Monday. 

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Mrs. Bryant 74, of 1213 V st. se., put away her wings years ago. She had suffered poor health for about 18 months and succumbed to a sudden attack of pneumonia. 

She was born on an Indiana farm. As a school girl, she wrote a composition, dated 2000, in which she described an imaginary flight she made from New Jersey to California in an electrically driven craft. 

From her father, who later owned the first electric car in Boise, Idaho, Alys learned mechanics. 

Her interest in flying reached new heights in 1912, nine years after the Wright Brothers' historic flight, when she helped piece together the wreckage of a plane that crashed near Los Angeles. 

Flies Pusher Plane

The same year, she learned to fly a Curtiss Pusher, a primitive plane with the propeller behind the wings.

She barnstormed the Northwest with Fred Bennett, one of the earliest air promoters, and her future husband, John Milton Bryant. They flew at every fair, carnival and exposition from California to Vancouver. She was billed as "The Birdwoman,' a breath taking stunt woman in jumpers and helmet and grease.

Alys and Bryant were married in the summer of 1913. At Seattle on July 17, 1913, she set a women's altitude record of 2900 feet. A few days later, they performed for the teenage prince of Wales and Duke of York at Vancouver.

On August 6, 1913, she witnessed her bridegroom's death in the crash of their plane. It was his 800th flight.

The young widow came East. She was connected for a time with the Benoist Aviation Company in St. Louis and Sandusky, Ohio. Then she joined the Goodyear Company at Akron, aeronautical mechanical department, and trained and supervised a crew of men for mechanical work on dirigibles during World War I.

In 1921, Mrs. Bryant constructed a Washington airport near the site of the old Hoover Field. The venture failed when her pilot and passenger killed their first passenger in a crash.

Various Jobs

When World War II broke out, Mrs. Bryant, then in early sixties, wanted to get into the war effort. She took a course in welding, and got a job with Transcontinental Western Air at National Airport. She repaired cowlings, manifolds and exhaust stocks.

Mrs. Bryant was one the few living members of Early Birdwomen, an organization of women who got their wings in the first 13 years of flight.

She is survived by a brother, Maj. Joe R. McKey of Miami; a sister, Pearl R. McKey of 731 Oak ave., Falls Church, and two nieces, Ruth McKey Annan of the Falls Church address, and Felipa McKey Cross of Alma, Mich.

Transcription Notes:
Switches between McKay and McKey across columns