Jacqueline Cochran - Pioneer Female Aviator

Jacqueline Cochran grew up in a poverty stricken environment in Florida. She learned beautician skills as a young child and worked in that profession while young. She trained to become a nurse but was not satisfied with nursing and went to New York as a beautician, changing her name to put her past behind her.

After learning to fly she became a very well known female pilot. When the US government turned down her proposal to use women to fly military support missions, she went to England and worked with the military there along with other American women pilots.

According to a book I recently read, Jacqueline Cochran went to Japan after the war to investigate the role of Japanese women in the war. While looking through files, she found many on her friend and fellow aviator, Amelia Earhart.

Jacqueline Cochran married Floyd Bostwick Odium, a millionaire New Yorker. Toward the end of her life, her health deteriorated until she died in 1980.

In 1996 the United States Postal Service honored Jacqueline Cochran with a fifty cent postage stamp.

The photo at upper right shows Jacqueline Cochran being sworn in as a consultant at NASA.

PHOTO CREDIT:
NASA

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