Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
Grandma" AImetia Bennett
to Celebrate Birthday
in AirpIane Today.
Western Massachusetts, Old
est Citizen Is a Real
Aviation Fan.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

| Oldest flying fan in the country, II not
the world, will make her seventh flight
on her 1880 birthday from the SPRING
field, Mass, airport.
The venerable old woman, who waved
farewell to her first husband, Calvin
Farr, 80 years ago as he treked across
| the continent in the covered wagon
days of 40 in search of gold, has lived
to travel by every mode Of transporta-
ton man has used.
Western Massachusetts, oldest citizen
will go aloft tomorrow with Lieut.. Ros-
coe Brinton, president of the Spring
field Airport Corporation, in q CurtiSs
Robin monoplane. She will circle her
own home, less than half a mile from
the field, and then soar out over the
beautiful Connecticut Valley for trip
, OF approximately so miles, according
to present plans.
Paid for First Ride.
when first few, they made me pay
| $40 for little flying that did not take
| 10 minutes, and they wouldn't do any
fipS for me-" Grandma" Bennett said.
This was the flight she took over Old
Orchard, Me. when she was "a years
| old. Lieut.. Kelly of the famous United
States Army crew that circled the world
some IL or is years ago, was her pilot.
At that time she made an agreement
to fly with DR.. Lester Powell, q Port
land, Me, physician. on her Tooth
birthday anniversary and kept 1t. Capt.
Harry Jones of the Old Orchard jump
ing on grounds for transatlantic flyers
| took her up in an open cockpit hydro
| plane. When she was 101 she made
trip by auto to Portland a second time
and few again over the Main Islands
OF Old Orchard and Portland.
Her longest flight was made a year
ago when she motored to Boston and
took of with Capt. Jones in a sister
ship of the Spirit Of st. Louis and new
to Old orchard, distance of more than
100 miles by air route. It was her first
ride in a cabin plane and she had
progressed more than half the distance
| before she realized that the motor
wasn't still being warmed UP ready for
the flight.
Since I made that mistake" grand
ma said" I just take a seat in the
plane and ask no questions till they
tell me to get out"
Eyesight Impaired.
Grandma" BENEFITS eyes are keen
so far as her short sight is concerned
and she still works old patch work COM
forters for her friends and relatives,
but beyond 100 feet she can distinguish
little or nothing.
AHdG Is Cne cause Oh ner greatest
chagrin, for she misses keenly the OPP
portunity to see the beauty of the
panorama stretched out beneath her.
Since Grandma" returned from ner
| overland flight to Old Orchard she has
been aloft twice in Springfield as the
guest of two of the local airports.
"One hundred and three years is
long time" Grandma" declared in an
! interview today while reminiscing over
ca .
When 1 was a small girl back in
Freedom, Me. where I was born, used
to have to walk to school from our farm.
We carried our books and lunch and a
bundle of wood to keep the school stove
going in the Winter time. Why, it took
almost as long to walk from our farm
to the school as it did to fly from Bos-
ton to Old Orchard.
A Textile Worker.
IT saw by the paper that an aviator
few across the United States and back
without stopping. Another one few
across in a shorter time than I used
to spend at a days work in a cotton
mill when was young girl working
for $3.50 a week.
MY first husband rode for months
in a covered wagon from Chicopee Falls
to go to California to join the gold
rush. The trip was so strenuous for
him he died a short time after he got
there. He never was strong one.
could wrestle him easy"
Grandma" Bennett Is fully alive to
the fact that she should marvel at the
change in the modes of transportation
since she was a small girl. The ques-
ton has been put to her by scores Of
reporters and interviewers, but she is
frank.
Il suppose ought to wonder at the
way things have changed" she said,
but I guess it's because grew up with
all the changes happening as the rest
Of us are to riding go miles an hour in
an automobile.
When I was a small girl we walked
wherever We wanted to go until my
father struck better times and could
buy horse. He used the horse to
pillow and work around the farm week
days and we only rode to church on
the Sabbath"
Husand Goes West.
IT was married to Calvin Farr when
I was 16, and he was pretty well-to-do.
He had a team of horses. Calvin was
always restless man and we packed
up our goods and came to live in Chico
pee Falls. He heard there was chance
to make more money In the cotton mills.
He hadn't been in Cabotville, it's Chico
pee Falls now. long VIXEN the gold rush
started. Another fellow and he took his
horses and wagon and started West"
Grandma" married Frenchman by
the name of Joseph Bennett soon after
and they moved to Canada. On this
trip up the Connecticut Valley, over hills
and down valleys, the load of household
goods was about all that could be drawn
by the lone horse, and Grandma"
walked most of the way
1t is because of this life Of vigorous
struggle that she counts as the life of
youth, that Grandma" Bennett is
still the hale and hearty old New Eng
lander that she Is, according to her
physician.
Grandma" has ridden on "shank's
mare" many mile by her own telling,
been drawn behind the slow, cumber-
some moving OK team, behind spirited
horses, on the early steam trains, in
electric cars and automobiles, and final
ly the swift-moving airplane, but she
got her greatest thrill riding in the
side car of motor cycle at so miles
an hour. Grandma" Bennett said 1t
was the only time she got thrill"
It guess / was like a happer that
day." she chuckled. But never
rolled my stockings below my knees"
she concluded with some spirit.
Granoma bSnneGC comes from
long Lived family. She has outlived
two sisters, one of whom attained 80
years and another 90; both husbands
and two children. One daughter re-
mains to her and it is with her that
she resides at present Just recently
she became q great-great-grandmo
and Is more proud Of her great-grand-
sons achievement than any Of her own,
she declares.
The Modern Whaler.
In sharp contrast with the glamorous,