My Mother’s Friend
By Natalie McCormick

Not many people remember Louise Thaden and her contributions to early aviation. She and Amelia Earhart catapulted women in aviation into the spotlight. Everyone, however, remembers Amelia Earhart. Ask any sixth grader who she is and they will say one of the first women to fly across the Atlantic… and the woman, who with Fred Noonan on that fateful day of July 2, 1937, was lost to the world only to be found by the ages. There is no doubt that Amelia is looked at with envy and admiration by men and women for what she did. Perhaps the way Earhart died made her famous and remembered. Had she lived to a ripe old age, she might not be remembered as well

.  Louise Thaden in front of plane

Louise McPetridge Thaden was born November 12, 1905, in Bentonville, Arkansas. Two short years after the Wright Brothers famous Kitty Hawk flight. In 1927, she soloed and earned her pilot’s certificate, which was signed by Orville Wright. Louise became only the fourth woman in the United States to get a transport pilot rating. In 1929, she competed and won Women’s Air Derby, a cross-country race from Santa Monica, CA to Cleveland, OH. Actually, beating out Earhart in the race.

Thaden and Earhart not only became pioneers in aviation but also expanded the scope of careers and activities open to women in aviation. They co-founded the Ninety-Nines, which is an international organization for female pilots. It began with ninety-nine charter members and is still active today. Louise Thaden braved flying cross-country during a time when landmarks and railroads took the place of GPS and instruments, leaving a lot of guess work and danger involved in navigating long distances. A woman had to perform better than a man in those days in order to be equal to a man. When Louise went for her check ride for transport license, the older man with a bushy beard who was to give her the check ride, plain out told her that he was about to be much tougher on her than on the previous three boys Louise had watched him fail their check ride. Like a real trooper, Louise performed her best ever and a disgruntled flight examiner grunted that she passed. So you know she was very good.

In one of her early flights she and a passenger were flying a new plane and lost an engine. The man was killed in the crash landing and she was beaten up pretty bad. This lady was a real go-getter. She suffered over the loss of her friend, but climbed back into the cockpit to test other planes and set altitude records.

Not long afterward, she set another record, except this time it was a women’s endurance mark of 22 hours, 3 minutes, and 12 seconds on March 17, 1929. Followed in 1936 by winning the most prestigious air race of the era, the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race. Thaden retired from full-time competition in 1938 to spend more time with her family. She published a book, the same year, about her accomplishments in a book entitled High, Wide and Frightened. The airport in her hometown of Bentonville, AR., was re-named The Louise Thaden Field in 1951.

                        Ira and Louise >>>>>

Ira Jones and his family remember Louise Thaden as a close friend of his mothers. His mother, Mary Virginia Jones, and Louise McPhetridge Thaden attended college together at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR, between 1921-25. Louise took her senior year off from school to help her parents pay for her college tuition, but fate intervened and she met Walter Beech, head of the Travel Air Corp. in Wichita, who offered her a chance at her dream to soar and she never returned to the university. In the meantime Ira’s mother graduated and became an English teacher in the Ft. Smith area. School chums from the start, Louise was in the select chosen few that were allowed to call his mother by her nickname, Sophie. Mr. Jones has a picture Louise Thaden personalized to his mother. “To my old side kicker Sophie…”

Ira has a memento of his own, a picture of Louise Thaden and him, at 3 years of age, sitting on the wing of her aircraft. (pictured) Ira admits he has no recollection of this first meeting with Mrs. Thaden but according to the story his mother told, on January 1, 1930, Louise flew into the Ft. Smith Airport, which at the time was located just over the border in Mopet, Oklahoma, to see her friend ‘Sophie’ and her first child, Ira.

Over the years, busy lives and families kept the friends from being as close as they had once been, but they continued to exchange Christmas cards and notes until Mrs. Thaden passed away on November 9, 1979.

Ira Jones first flight was at the age of sixteen. He and a friend in High School rode their bikes to the airport and paid $2 for a short flight. He was hooked; his friend was not. Encouraged by his parents, he continued his pilot training. Ira even worked Saturday nights as watchman, in exchange for 30 minutes of flight time. He received his private certificate before he enlisted with the Air Force during WWII. He had aspirations of entering the cadet program and piloting missions but was instead used as ground crew and spent a year in a Berlin finance office.

                  Ira today >>>>>>>>>

In 1966, Ira (pictured) received his instructor ticket and decided to teach his teenaged son to fly. The son didn’t want to learn, but 3 years ago around Father’s Day his son bought him a dual hour of instruction and once again he was hooked from the first. Ira, now 75 years young, owns his own aircraft again, a Cessna 150 and flies every weekend if not more.

The Staggerwing Museum, located in Tullahoma, Tennessee, has an exhibit devoted to Louise Thaden. As a pioneer aviatrix, she is honored though mementos located in a 100 year old cabin moved to the site in 1972. She won the ladies prize and the coveted Bendix Trophy for being the fist person of either sex to cross the finish line in her favorite model aircraft, a Beech Staggerwing.