She immediately fell in love with flying, and took numerous rides that summer with the same French pilot, Louis Gaubert. In 1918, at the age of six, along with her brother Joe, she took her first plane ride in a Farman pusher that took off from a potato patch near Hicksville on Long Island. He wrote his own material for his vaudeville act, and in the 1920s wrote comedy bits for Broadway shows as well. He toured extensively (including to Great Britain and France) in the role of the Scarecrow in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz and was a star of the Orpheum Circuit. Her mother had been a professional singer before her marriage her father was a comedian, singer and dancer. Smith was born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward (her actor father changed his name to Tom Smith, in order to avoid being mistaken for another performer, thus she became Elinor Smith) in New York City and grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. She was the youngest licensed pilot in the world at age 16. She was the first woman test pilot for both Fairchild and Bellanca (now AviaBellanca). Smith (right) with Helen Hicks around 1928-1930 in Farmingdale, New YorkĮlinor Smith (Aug– March 19, 2010) was a pioneering American aviator, once known as "The Flying Flapper of Freeport".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |