IWASM would like to express our deepest condolences to the family of Evelyn Bryan Johnson. An IWASM member since 1991, Evelyn was truly an amazing person and an inspiration to all she met. Never giving up and never giving in, she logged over 57,000 flight hours (making her the highest-time female pilot), administered thousands of checkrides and managed an airport for decades. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her flying contributions. Evelyn passed away May 10th at age 102. Known as "Mama Bird," she touched a lot of lives and all were better because of her. We valued her committment, her enthusiasm and her knowledge and she will be missed. Evelyn Bryan Johnson will be buried at Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
This is her biography from Wikipedia:
Evelyn Bryan Johnson (November 4, 1909 – May 10, 2012), nicknamed “Mama Bird”, was the female pilot with the most number of flying hours in the world. She was a Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol and a founding member of the Morristown, TN Civil Air Patrol squadron.
Johnson was born Evelyn Stone in Corbin, Kentucky. She was a graduate of Tennessee Wesleyan College. As a young woman she taught school in Etowah, Tennessee. Later she attended the University of Tennessee.
She married Wyatt Jennings "W.J." Bryan and learned to fly in 1944, while he was serving in the Army Air Corps and the couple was living in Jefferson City, Tennessee.[3] She logged 57,635.4 flying hours, and was the oldest flight instructor in the world. She trained more pilots and gave more FAA exams than any other pilot. She was named in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the most flying hours of any woman and the most of any living person.[4] Johnson was an inductee of the Women in Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame, the Tennessee and Kentucky aviation halls of fame and others. She was awarded a bronze Carnegie Medal for rescuing a helicopter pilot after he crashed.
She became manager of the Moore-Murrell Airport in Morristown, Tennessee, in 1953. Although she stopped flying at the age of 96, as of 2010, at age 101, she continued to serve as airport manager.
Evelyn’s first husband, W. J. Bryan, died on November 11, 1963. In 1965 she married Morgan Johnson, who died in 1977.
On July 21, 2007, Johnson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. alongside astronaut Sally Ride and adventurer Steve Fossett, among others. The induction was her sixth such honor.
Johnson was in a car accident on September 10, 2006, after which one of her legs had to be amputated.
Johnson's scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other papers from the period 1930 to 2002 are housed in the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University.
Death
On May 10, 2012, Johnson died at the age of 102.
References
1. ^ a b "Aviation legend Evelyn Bryan Johnson dies at 102". Knoxville News Sentinel. May 11, 2012. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/may/11/aviation-legend-evelyn-bryan-johnson-dies-102/. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
2. ^ Ericka Mellon (July 29, 2004), "Aeronautics program makes spirits soar", Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/may/11/aeronautics-program-makes-spirits-soar/
3. ^ Joe Godfrey (September 29, 1999). "Evelyn Bryan Johnson". AVweb.
4. ^ a b c Ham, Abby (November 24, 2010), Your Stories: Mama Bird Evelyn Johnson, Knoxville, Tennessee: WBIR-TV, http://www.wbir.com/dontmiss/144319/207/Your-Stories-Mama-Bird-Evelyn-Johnson
5. ^ a b Johnson, Brianne, Finding Aid for Evelyn Bryan Johnson Papers, 1930-2002, http://archives.etsu.edu/?p=collections/findingaid&id=406&q=&rootcontentid=34899
6. ^ National Aviation Hall of Fame biography for Evelyn Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment