Today’s COVID Card is another in the mini-series celebrating airmail. Today, I share the story (as told here) of Katherine Stinson.

In 1912, at the age of 21, Katherine Stinson became the fourth woman in the United States to earn her pilot’s license. The next year, she became the first woman to fly the U.S. Mail when she dropped mailbags from her plane at the Montana State Fair. Dubbed the “Flying Schoolgirl,” she captivated audiences worldwide with her youthful looks, long brown curls, and fearless feats of aerial derring-do. In 1917, she set a non-stop long-distance endurance record, flying from San Diego to San Francisco in 9 hours and 10 minutes. In 1918, she became the first woman to fly an experimental mail route from Chicago to New York, as well as the first woman to fly the regular route from New York to Washington, D.C.

Of course, this 21 year old female pilot was described as a “school girl” and more focus seemed to be on her charming “do” than her “derring-dos.” Not much has changed, really. Thank you, Katherine Stinson, you will always be a bad-ass to me!