Evening star., 1937-09-19
My Life With Amelia Earhart
BY GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM
The New England So
cial w orker Who
Wanted to Fly the
Atlantic and How
She Did.

AIldIlCIC ana NOW
She Did.
The story of the ,oorld's most
famous Donan duidtor, as re-
notOned parsonage and as uife. is
told here by the flyers husband.
totdelv kno,Un author and editor, in
a series OF sir articles, OF Uhich
this IS the first. The flyer has not
been heard from since last July 2.
,Uhen, on ld-girdling fight,
she took OF from Netp Guinea for
tiny HotDland Island, in the South
Pacific.
IN HE first time I saw Amelia
Earhart was early in 1928.
When she appeared at my Of
= nee was busy, SO she had to
cool her heels-and didn't like 1t much.
The Hon. Mrs. Frederick Guest had
secretly purchased from Admiral (then
ComdrD Byrd Fokker monoplane.
Through her representatives 1 had
been commissioned, surprisingly, to
find an American woman who would
fly in that plane to England.
1 had heard about a girl in Boston
who might do. Let A. E. herself de-
scribe what happened next.
Il was working in Denison House,
one of Americas oldest social settle
ments.
Phone for you, Miss Earhart'
AT the moment I was busy, in
cluster of Chinese and Syrian neigh
borhood children, piling in for games
and classes.
They say it's important
so l excused myself and listened
to mans voice asking me whether I
was interested in doing something
dangerous in the air. At first I thought
the conversation was a joke and said
so. Several times before I had been
approached by bootleggers who PROM
ised rich rewards and no danger
Absolutely no danger to you, Teddy
Stirred Her Curiosity.
THE frank acknowledgment of risk
stirred my curiosity. References were
demanded and supplied. Good refer
ences. An appointment was arranged
for that evening.
Would you like to fly the Atlantic?'
MY reply was a prompt 'yes'-pro-
vided the equipment was right and the
crew capable Nine years ago flying
oceans was less commonplace than
today
so I went to New York. The can
didate, gathered, must be a flyer
herself, with social graces, education,
charm and perchance, pulchritude.
Mr.. Putnams appraisal left me
discounted. Somehow he seemed un-
impressed. But 1 showed my pilots
license Gt happened to be the first
granted an American woman by the
F. A. H. and inwardly prepared to
start back for Boston.
However, he felt that, having come
so far I might as we'll meet the repre-
sentative OF Mrs. Guest. 1t should
have been slightly embarrassing, for
II 1 were found wanting in too many
ways would be counted out. On the
other hand. If were just too fas-
cinatine, the gallant gentlemen might
be loath to risk drowning me. The
meeting was a crisis.
"A few days later the verdict came
The flight actually would be made and
could go II I wished. Naturally
couldn't say mo- Who would refuse
an invitation to such shining adven-
ture?"
Flew Ocean as Passenger.
On June 18, 1928, Amelia Earhart
had become the first woman to fly
the Atlantic. True, she was merely
a passenger. She made no pretense
OF being more than that One Eng
lish paper reminded It's public that
she was simply "a sack of potatoes.
Nevertheless, as such things happen,
the feminine member of the trans
Atlantic trio got the glory. The ad-
venture launched her career in avia-
ton. In the months that followed
she set up a flock of flying records.
Then, in 1882, she few the North
Atlantic solo, the second person to
do so. The first was Lindbergh.
Likewise, she married. That was in
February, 1881. She married the man
who discovered" her. She always
emphasized her uncertainty as to
whether that was reward or retribu-
ton. With me there was no question.
The spur -the-moment wedding oc-
CURED in little Summer house of
my mothers, at Noank, Conn. on 4
Saturday morning. Present were
local justice OF the peace, my mother
and a black cat. Monday We were
both back at our desks in New York,
where A. E. was the vice president of
an airline, publisher.
In A. E's words: "One ocean led
naturally to another" In January.
1885, she few alone from Honolulu
to Oakland, and little later made a
nonstop solo from Mexico City to
New York. During those later years
she was nursing a major ambition
to ny around the world as near the
equator as practicable.
On June /, after a Honolulu crack
up following an earlier start. she re-
commenced the flight from West to
East On July 2, after covering sue
cessfully $4,000 miles, she embarked
from New Guinea on the hazardous
flight across the South Pacific to tiny
Rowland Island. 1850 miles away.
She and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
did not fnd Rowland. Some radio
messages, apparently sent not far from
the objective that July morning, told
the world their fuel was giving out.