Miss Earhart wed George Putnam, a publisher, on February 7, 1931. The glamor of her flying achievements has been such that few persons know Amelia Earhart Putnam was wealthy in her own right, a linguist and a brilliant student with outstanding research work in experimental and calculative chemistry to her credit.
The former Boston social worker, who first achieved fame in 1928 when she accompanied Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on a flight over the Atlantic and later flew solo across the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Earhart began flying when she was nineteen, and held the 17th international license ever issued. She was the first woman ever to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross bestowed by Congress and the National Geographic Society gold medal.
Earhart was entertained in the home of Mrs. H. W. Bracy on North Market Street. The BPW Club paid $500 for this honored speaker (quite a sum in 1933). Two hundred and fifty members and guests attended the dinner in the dining room of the First Christian Church (400 N. Market) and 500 were in attendance to hear the speaker in the church auditorium.
Greetings were splendidly extended by Rev. Warner Muir. The Club president, Miss Edna Welton presided at both the dinner and the program. Mrs. Robert W. (Clara) Boatright, past president, gave the invocation, Miss Leta (Bracy) Musgrave presented organ selections and Mrs. Grace Duty led the group in songs.
A tall, slim woman, with a shock of unruly hair, Miss Earhart chose a brown lace dress for her appearance with the Club, and she charmed those in attendance with her personality. She said, “Two thirds of any expedition is in the preparation,” and she gave her philosophy of worry. “Worry should be done at least two months ahead of time. She told of the many reasons which were assigned for her making the flights, saying that it was not to “pay off a mortgage on the old homestead for there was no old homestead to hold a mortgage,” or any of the other guesses, but said that the only reason was her wish to do so.
The prompt weather service then available, she said, was a great help as compared with that furnished in 1928 with the “Friendship” crew and at her solo flight in 1932. On the Atlantic flight no safety equipment was a carried, but in response to public criticisms she carried a “rubber boat about the size of a hotel bath tub” on the Honolulu to Oakland trip in January, 1935. This was to be inflated from a tank of carbon dioxide gas, “if it worked.” The workings of the short wave length radio and her messages to and from ships and shore were described, as the talk being in a smooth even voice which was very pleasing.
“The Atlantic Ocean flight,” she said, “is one with chances of one in ten for success while that over the Pacific is an even break. In the one, the route is away from the course of ocean steamers while the other follows same.”
Earhart visited the Marion Airport which was then located east of the now Old Creal Springs Road where it joins East Main Street (old Route 13), now the location of Fabick Machinery (today the Soccer Fields) . She complimented Manager Fred Valentin on the fine landing field. “This is a slick field, “she remarked. “You have a real sporty field here.”
In closing her address, she said that flying is safer than riding in any other way when the speed is above 45 to 50 miles per hour. She said that she hoped to come back to Marion by plane and land at the splendid airport.
In 1937, on almost the last lap of a flight around the world, Amelia Earhart took off from New Guinea for a central Pacific islet. She was never seen again and her loss remains a mystery.
(Information for this article was supplied by Eva Stover, Clara Boatright, The Marion Daily Republican, and The Marion Evening Post around 1990 and compiled by Mary Lou Roberts. Published in the 1989 Sesquicentennial History, WCHS; photo is historical and autograph is from 1989 History; edited by Sam Lattuca for chronological relevance only 01/25/2013)