Marvel Crosson flew airplanes in Alaska before any other woman even thought about it—flew co-pilot with several of the most famous Alaska bush pilots then, in 1927 earned a commercial pilots license and could legally fly on her own.
Thirteen-year-old Marvel, with her younger brother Joe, first saw an airplane fly at a state fair in Colorado. Both siblings decided on the spot to learn to fly. Six years later, in San Diego, they pulled it off. And they bought parts to assemble their first airplane—an N9 seaplane.
Link to another story “Mushy Spring Ice and Bush Pilot Bob Reeve”
Colleen Mondor, a reporter for The Anchorage Daily News, told Marvel’s story in the June 19, 2016 edition.
In 1924 a friend lured Joe north for a flying job. Marvel had no intention of joining him. She kept the N9 flying until, in 1927 Joe came home and persuaded her to climb on a steamer and head back with him.
At that time fewer than 70 women piloted airplanes in the United States. None of them had made it to the Alaska Territory.
Reporters heard about Marvel and made “Alaska’s Aviation Grocery Girl” and the “Pollyanna of the North” famous down in the lower 48.” One reporter wrote breathlessly, “She dares death to spread sunshine and scatter watermelons over the Yukon’s white wastes.”
In 1928 Marvel returned to California, lined up sponsorship and began setting altitude records, and later in the year she entered the very first “Women’s Air Derby.” Flying the derby on August 19, 1929 her plane crashed in Arizona.
Marvel died at 29.