I came across this obituary of a Pensacola orphan that was an aviator and contemporary of Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran. She was orphaned and reared as a foster child, desperately poor, in Florida’s panhandle near Pensacola. The foster family lived in a logging camp and often had nothing to eat. Her dresses consisted of flour sacks, and she ran around barefoot. At age eight, she worked in a textile mill. By age 13 she was a beautician, ultimately working in a first-class New York salon. In 1932, at age 22, she met Floyd Odlum, a rising financial tycoon, marrying him four years later.
Cochran learned to fly and raced Earhart. Early in World War II, Cochran was chosen to lead the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), which ferried airplanes around the U.S. and Canada in order to free male pilots for combat.
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