Viewing page 9 of 24

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

a hundred instances of airplane-flown mail, including that of Katherine Stinson at Helena, Montana, in 1913, but all of these so-called "pioneer" airmails were temporary and usually a novelty rather than a useful service. But on Katherine's flight with mail in 1918 whe [[she]] was piloting an official governmental airmail plane and carrying official public mail. To do this she had received special permission from the Postmaster General. This required the mechanics at College Park to remove the then-customary stick and rudder controls and make and install the two-lever system (the right-hand lever having an upper hinged portion for rudder control) that had been originated by Orville Wright in 1909 and which Katherine had been taught in 1912. Airmail pilot Maurice Newton escorted her to the Bustleton Field and also for the return flight, each time permitting her to land first. 

That airmail flight was during World War I. Reportedly also during the war, Katherine, while in Europe, did some flying for the American Red Cross in England, over London and in France, and wanted to fly at the front but was refused. She was granted permission to drive Red Cross ambulances in France. When that Motor Corps disbanded she transferred to the Canteen Service. While engaged in these patriotic duties she contracted influenza which became more serious. Returning to the United States, a lung condition forced her retirement from aviation in 1920. Moving to New Mexico to benefit from a change in climate she married Judge Miguel Otero of Santa Fe in 1928. She became a successful architect, real estate agent, and home decorator. In May 1928 she was honored guest at the Women's World Fair in Chicago. In later years her activities were reduced by recurrence of the lung condition. In World War II she served locally as a Red Cross volunteer worker.

Katherine Stinson died at Santa Fe July 8, 1977, at age 86. By courtesy of Mrs. Paul Culver, widow of Early Bird Paul Culver, the organization of Early Birds added a wreath to the many floral remembrances. Katherine's 

7