MOVING HISTORY FORWARD: 'She could fly anything with wings'

Sixteen-year-old Gladys Dawson had saved her money to buy an airplane ride, and after six seconds in the air she was hooked. A year later, 1932, the local newspaper reported that she made her first solo flight after only five hours of instruction. After a series of fights with her abusive father, Gladys packed a small suitcase and ran away from her home near Bellingham, Wash. The local airfield was Tulip Field and her instructor was Herb Buroker. Five years later, 1937, Gladys and Herb would marry.