Pearl Laska Chamberlain

rdf:langString Pearl Laska Chamberlain

rdf:langString Pearl L. Chamberlain

rdf:langString Pearl L. Chamberlain

rdf:langString Richland Place Nursing Home, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

rdf:langString Chestnut Mountain, Summers County, West Virginia, U.S.

rdf:langString Lelia Pearl Bragg

rdf:langString Pearl Laska Chamberlain, WASP trainee

rdf:langString Lewis L. Laska

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString Pilot

rdf:langString Ed Chamberlain

rdf:langString Lewis Lincoln Laska

rdf:langString Pearl Laska Chamberlain (born Lelia Pearl Bragg; April 29, 1909 – November 22, 2012) was an American woman pilot. She learned to fly in a Kinner Fleet bi-plane in 1933 and held a pilot’s certificate until she was 97. Prior to World War II, the federal government established the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a back-door method to train pilots for military service. One of eight children born to John W. and Lanie C. Bragg, she joined the WASPs during WWII and was honorably discharged. In 1944, following her dream to be a full-time pilot, Pearl moved to Nome, Alaska and worked as a flight instructor and bush pilot. Her adventures as a pilot involved everything from Powder Puff Derbies to filling her tank with water instead of gasoline. The next year she became the first woman to solo a single-engine airplane (a 1939 Piper J-4) up the Alaska Highway. The FAA recognized her achievements as a pioneer Alaska aviator in 2006. Scorning the belief that Alaska Natives were unable to learn flying, she taught many, including Holger Jorgensen, who became the first Native hired as a pilot by a scheduled airline. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Alaska in 1955, and her master's degree from Miami University of Ohio in 1959. In March 2006, she received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

rdf:langString Lelia Pearl Bragg