Fay Gillis Wells, 1908-2002 born Minneapolis, Minnesota
In 1929, as a 20-year-old student pilot, Fay Gillis Wells became the one of the first women to parachute from a
plane when the biplane she was flying broke apart. That courage to take the big leap would characterize Wells'
careers as a pioneering aviator and a foreign correspondent. She ferried and demonstrated the early planes
designed by the legendary Glenn Curtiss, becoming the first woman to be employed in such a job. During that
time, Fay met other women aviators, including Amelia Earhart, with whom she co-founded the women's flying
group, the Ninety-Nine's. Wells covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia with her journalist husband, their bylines
sometimes appearing together on a front page. She traveled with the White House press corps to Vietnam and
was one of three women journalists covering President Richard Nixon's historic China trip in 1972. In 2002, when
she died at the age of 94, Wells was serving her two great loves, sitting on a NASA advisory board helping to
select the first journalist who would fly in space. She regretted never having had the chance to become an
astronaut.
In 1929, as a 20-year-old student pilot, Fay Gillis Wells became the one of the first women to parachute from a
plane when the biplane she was flying broke apart. That courage to take the big leap would characterize Wells'
careers as a pioneering aviator and a foreign correspondent. She ferried and demonstrated the early planes
designed by the legendary Glenn Curtiss, becoming the first woman to be employed in such a job. During that
time, Fay met other women aviators, including Amelia Earhart, with whom she co-founded the women's flying
group, the Ninety-Nine's. Wells covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia with her journalist husband, their bylines
sometimes appearing together on a front page. She traveled with the White House press corps to Vietnam and
was one of three women journalists covering President Richard Nixon's historic China trip in 1972. In 2002, when
she died at the age of 94, Wells was serving her two great loves, sitting on a NASA advisory board helping to
select the first journalist who would fly in space. She regretted never having had the chance to become an
astronaut.
Click the "back" arrow to return to previous page.