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Evelyn Waldren
Evelyn Esther Nicholas Burleson Whitmaker Waldren (June 25, 1908 – October 25, 1986) was the first woman in Nebraska to become a pilot, the first woman in North Dakota with a transport pilot's license, and one of the first women in the United States with a flight instructor's license. In 1941, she set a new speed and distance record for female pilots in light planes. ChildhoodWaldren was born Evelyn Esther Nicholas in Stockham, Nebraska.[1] Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and her younger sister, Virginia, were raised by their mother and stepfather.[2] When she was five years old, her family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.[1] Her stepfather was a "heavy duty equipment operator".[2] A self-described tomboy, Waldren grew up helping him in his garage[3] and visiting the construction sites where he worked.[1] She attended McKinley School and Bryant School.[1] She was skilled at drawing and considered a career as an artist.[1] In the summer of 1926, Waldren saw an airshow in the small southern Nebraskan town where her stepfather was working on a railroad.[4] She wanted to go for a plane ride, but her parents were concerned about the risks.[2] Aviation appealed to her because of the good pay, the opportunity for travel, and the chance to work outdoors.[1] Hearing about the feats of pilots like Ruth Elder, Charles Lindbergh and Phoebe Omlie strengthened her resolve.[5] Flight trainingDespite Waldren's arguments, her mother and stepfather refused to let her fly.[4] Finally, on March 1, 1928, Waldren's mother agreed to let her train at the Lincoln School of aviation and to pay for the first fifty hours of lessons.[4] As she told the story in 1986, "My mother enrolled me, paid $50 and said, 'You're on your own now: probably just a whim anyhow.' Well, this whim has lasted 56 years."[6] On March 3, Waldren took her first flight in a surplus World War I biplane.[5] She remembered it as "the most remarkable, wonderful feeling. I felt the rush of wind in my face, smelled the exhaust. It looked like a fairyland down there."[6] After 14 hours of practice,[5] Nicholas flew alone for the first time on June 7 at Page Field.[2] Later that year, she obtained her pilot's license,[4] becoming the first female pilot in Nebraska.[5] By then, she had spent 75 hours flying solo.[3] For ten years, Waldren's father, Wilhelm Nicholas, had not known where she was.[7] After he recognized her picture in the newspaper,[3] he was reunited with his daughters in 1928.[7] Great DepressionAfter graduating flight school, Waldren moved to Rockford, Illinois, where she carried passengers and did exhibition flying.[8] She hoped to get a transport pilot's license, but needed 200 hours of flying time to qualify.[4] After the Great Depression began in August 1929, Waldren had difficulty finding jobs, let alone work that would allow her to fly.[4] She worked as a clerk and a ticket salesman, saving whatever money she could spare towards her transport license.[4] Decades later, she recalled renting a plane and flying it once around the airport for a dollar.[4] She remarked that "I've got a lot of three-, four- and five-minute entries in my log book. It came very slowly."[4] Waldren also hunted coyotes for a $2.50 government bounty, shooting them from a Rearwin Sportster plane.[9] Ranchers' associations would sometimes give her free chicken dinners and free gas for her plane to thank her.[9] Jamestown Municipal AirportIn 1929, Waldren married Howard Burleson, who had been one of her instructors at the Lincoln flying school.[5] They moved to North Dakota, where she became the first woman in the state to get a transport pilot's license[4] in 1933.[10] With her husband, she ran a flying service out of the Jamestown Municipal Airport from 1931 to 1937,[11] making charter trips.[12] She also worked as an airways observer for the weather bureau and as a station agent and traffic representative for a local firm.[12] She recalled her time there in a 1986 interview:[13]
Albany AirportWaldren and Howard Burleson managed the Albany Municipal Airport in Oregon from 1937 to 1941.[14] Waldren also wrote a column on aviation for the Albany Democrat-Herald,[14] called Wings Over Willamette.[15] In 1939, she was appointed to the women's committee and the junior activities committee of the National Aeronautic Association's Willamette Valley chapter.[16][17] In February 1939, Waldren was appointed an air patrolman by the Albany chief of police, making her the second female air patrolman in Oregon.[18] Her jurisdiction extended over the airport, where she had the responsibility of enforcing aviation law and responding to any emergencies.[18] She was recommended for the post by the Aero Policewoman's Association of America.[18] In October 1939, Albany Municipal Airport was approved to run a training program for the Civil Aeronautics Authority.[19] Waldren became a Civilian Aviation Authority Flight Examiner[14] after passing her written exam with a score of 94.[19] It was the highest score her examiner had ever given.[19] With this achievement, Waldren became the second women to receive a pilot instructor's license in the United States.[4] Through the program, she instructed an initial group of ten students[19] and a second group of fifteen students.[20] Waldren's second class included six women.[20] The students, who came from Oregon State University,[10] were required to have eight hours of flight instruction before flying on their own.[20] In 1941, Oregon women reactivated their chapter of the Ninety-Nines, a professional organization for female pilots.[21] Waldren was named vice governor of the chapter, which included Edith Foltz, Leah Hing, and Bessie Gale Halliday.[21] Goodwill flightIn 1941, Waldren planned a nonstop flight from Canada to Mexico.[22] She wanted to fly to Mexico City, where she would deliver goodwill letters from the governor of Oregon and the mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia.[22] Waldren took off from Vancouver at 2:30 PM on October 1[4] in her Taylorcraft airplane, Miss Liberty.[23] The plane held 80 gallons of gasoline.[23] She had delayed her flight by a day due to bad weather.[23] That night, she flew into a fog bank over the Siskiyou Mountains.[23] She considered bailing out, but decided it was too dangerous, since she "was probably too low to jump anyway.[23] Disoriented, she made a series of climbs and dives, then decided her best chance was to try to rise above the mountaintops.[23] After an uncertain amount of time, she emerged from the fog near Mount Shasta.[23] Waldren landed in Tijuana, Mexico on October 2 at 7:30 a.m., setting a new women's record for speed and distance in a light plane.[4] Her average speed during the flight was 103 miles per hour.[4] Upon landing in Tijuana, she abandoned her plan to fly to Mexico City.[22] World War IIWaldren was recruited by Jacqueline Cochran to join the British Air Transport Auxiliary, but backed out when her mother and sister objected.[2] Instead, she moved to the U.S. Army base in Alturas, California to train Army cadets to fly.[4] She was one of two female instructors at the base.[5] Waldren stayed at the base for several years, training students in "turns... stalls, spot landings from various altitudes, stick turns, spins, that sort of thing".[2] Marriage to Robert WhitmakerWaldren married Robert Whitmaker in 1942.[24] The couple had a son, Douglas[11] Whitmaker,[24] in 1943.[4] They divorced in 1949.[24] Evelyn charged her husband with "cruel and inhuman treatment" and petitioned for custody of Douglas.[24] Aircraft transportIn 1946, Waldren ferried planes from the Taylorcraft Aviation Corporation in Alliance, Ohio to the Northwest Aircraft Distributing Corporation at Evergreen Field in Washington.[4] She was paid 250 dollars for every plane she transported, but had to arrange her own return trips without compensation.[4] Waldren delivered three to four planes a month, flying 13 to 14 hours a day.[4] In December 1946, Waldren left this job and joined the Piercy Flying Service in Medford, Oregon as a flight instructor.[25] Community InvolvementWaldren served as the public relations coordinator of the Oregon State Board of Aeronautics.[26] She planned the Central Oregon Aviation Day held in June 1949, an educational event which provided free plane rides.[27] Waldren arranged invitations and registration to the Salem Aviation Day held on August 28, 1949,[28] where she demonstrated pattern flying and dead-stick landings.[29] She also helped organize an airshow in Lebanon, Oregon, and escorted former Oregon resident Kathleen "Klondike Kate" Van Duren to the event.[30] Marriage to Robert WaldrenEvelyn married Robert Waldren,[31] and together, they managed the Langmack Field airport in Sweet Home, Oregon.[32] There, Evelyn Waldren received her private examiner's rating in 1951, allowing her to give out student pilot certificates.[32] She was the first woman in Oregon with this rating.[32] With their business partner, Homer Moxley, the Waldrens bought the Oregon City Skypark in 1953.[31] Career in CaliforniaWaldren moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where her family lived, "to instruct students learning to fly under the GI Bill."[4] After the program lost funding, she flew for US Forest Service and the California Division of Forestry as a fire spotter.[4] In Enterprise, California, she operated the B & E flying service with another pilot, Helen Benna.[5] After Benna left the business, Waldren became a flight instructor with Shasta Aviation at the Redding Sky Camp in Redding, California.[4] After a heat wave in the summer of 1971, Waldren decided to return to the Pacific Northwest.[4] Evergreen AirportIn 1971, Waldren began working for the Mill Plain Flying Service at Evergreen Field in Washington as a flight instructor.[4] She remained there until she died in 1986.[33] Six months before her death, Waldren was training nearly a dozen students.[13] That same year, the Federal Aviation Administration named her Instructor of the Year for the Western Region.[33] By the time she died, Waldren had flown 23,700 hours.[33] RecognitionIn 1978, Waldren was named the National OX-5 Pioneer Aviatrix of the Year.[33] In 1984, she was elected to the OX-5 Pioneer Hall of Fame.[33] References
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