In November, inspired by the New York Times obituary for Norris Church Mailer, I wrote about how helpful it is to read newspapers on actual newsprint. I said:
“I enthusiastically use teh Interwebs to stay informed, but I’m highly aware of how easy it is to select only what you want to read. That’s why I read on paper too. The mere act of turning the pages means I come across articles that I wouldn’t necessarily hunt down or might plain miss online.”
Today, again, an obituary caught my eye. Violet Cowden, one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II, died this month at the age of 94. The WASPs — who were attached to the Army Air Forces — were the first women to serve as U.S. military pilots, doing jobs formerly done by men who were deployed elsewhere for combat duty. The Times said of the WASPs, “…some ferried new places to their destinations, others towed targets for aerial gunnery practice, still others were flight instructors.”
Cowden had taken her first flying lessons in the 1930s, biking to the airfield because she didn’t have a driver’s license. She was later one of the 25,000 women who applied for an early version of the WASPs and one of the 1,830 accepted. At just over 5″ tall, she barely made the minimum weight of 100 pounds. In 2007, she said, “The air is such a comfortable place for me.” She called the P-51 Mustang — a single-seat fighter plane that she flew as a WASP — “the love of my life.”
When the men came home from the war, the Army dissolved the WASPs. Cowden recalled that day in December 1944 as one of the worst in her life. Because commercial airlines didn’t hire women as pilots, the only aviation job she could get was behind the ticket counter at Trans World Airlines. “It was painful, she later said, to be so close to planes yet so far from the cockpit, and she soon left,” The Times reports. The WASPs weren’t recognized as war veterans until 1977.
Violet Cowden. Photo from U.S. Army Air Forces via The New York Times.
I particularly enjoyed the obituary’s final anecdote, which notes that the WASPs’ work was so important that commercial airlines were ordered to bump any passenger if a WASP needed to be transported to an assignment. Cowden, after being placed on a commercial flight to Memphis, deplaned to see a group of disappointed-looking women. The passenger she had bumped? Frank Sinatra.
I also liked the story about the time her plane caught fire upon landing. The Times says, “…thinking quickly, Mrs. Cowden saved her important papers and her makeup.” The paper doesn’t say if the makeup included red lipstick, but I’m going to imagine that it did. Violet Cowden sounds like a red lipstick kind of gal to me. And to think that I might have missed her if I only read the news online!
UPDATED TO ADD: There’s another fascinating woman mentioned in the Times’s Opinion section. Click here to read about Benjamin Franklin’s sister Jane.
Brilliant insights, as usual, WendyB. Thanks for opening things up for all of us.
It’s so awful to think about how the awesome women who fought the war were once again marginalized by sexism when the men came home. I can’t imagine the cognitive dissonance.
This woman does sound awesome, thanks for posting it
Thanks for sharing this obituary Wendy. It’s sobering to think of so many women being suddenly displaced from jobs they loved.
Great dames … grab the lipstick & papers & out the door.
Love the stories and glad you plucked this one out.
A letter from Frank Sinatra that I saved …http://twitpic.com/4p2juk
no, not to me
Please, let me just imagine that Frank wrote to you.
I freaking love her! I read about some of these women when I was researching the French Resistance. There were a lot of female pilots in Europe. It infuriates me that the U.S. didn’t recognize her as a veteran until 1977. And she was only able to work at the stupid TWA ticket counter…? Gross. Just gross.
Totally agree with you, WB!
Great bio!
xoxox,
CC
I love reading about intrepid women like Violet Cowden. Thanks, Wendy!
She sounds amazing. I love the fact that she remembered to grab her paperwork and makeup. Give a woman a man’s job and she’ll do it just as well but keep her femininity.
And I love that she managed to bump Frank Sinatra. All in all an impressive woman.
Just finished reading that section and have the newsprint messiness to prove it!
Oh this brought to mind a childhood fantasy of mine…that I would join the WASPs. Now, I’m off to read about Jane.
Thank you so much for posting this. Vi was such a firecracker, we really believed she would live forever! And she so embodied the spirit of the WASP – her sense of adventure, strength, love of country & Moxy! And like most of the WASP women, cared more about the fact that they got to fly these amazing planes and help out their nation than whether or not they would be accepted by the men and government. Like all Veterans, they are our true National Treasures.
She has left a very large hole in our lives. We feel blessed that we knew her and were able to get her story on film and share it with the world. Now she is off flying farther, faster and higher than she ever has before.
That’s awesome – I didn’t know any of that history. I love the story about her bumping Sinatra.
She was definitely a red lipstick type of gal, I just know it.
Bumping Sinatra was definitely one of her favorites, too!
They had such little room in the planes, so they stored their make-up in a sock! Red lipstick – you betcha!
I’d imagine that the only other lipstick color other than red that Violet would have worn was . . . violet!
I love how she bumped Frank, and even better, I laugh at WASP. How . . . politically incorrect that acronym would be these days!