Category: History || By Andi Cartwright

(Photo courtesy McKeesport Regional History and Heritage Center)

Most McKeesporters know about Helen Richey Field in Renziehausen Park, but few could tell you that it was named for a record-breaking aviation pioneer.

In 1927, after catching the "flying fever" watching the pilots at Bettis Field in West Mifflin, 20-year-old Helen Richey obtained her pilot's license and was given her own plane by her father, McKeesport school Superintendent Dr. Joseph Richey.

Pretty, smart and fearless, she soon made a name for herself as a barrel-rolling, stunt-flyer, but was also known for being a safe and skilled pilot.

She became friends with Amelia Earhart, who would stay at the Richey home on Jenny Lind Street, and even co-piloted with her on a test flight of the Lockheed plane that Amelia was flying when she disappeared.

In 1933, sponsored by Outdoor Girl Cosmetics, she and Frances Marsalis became co-holders of the women's endurance flight record, in which they spent 10 days in the air.

Later that year, Helen became the nation's first female, licensed, commercial-airline pilot. But the company that hired her had done it as a publicity stunt, and never actually let her pilot a plane alone without a male companion.

Frustrated, she quit, and started a new job as an "air-marker," working with the federal Works Progress Administration to have the names of towns painted on rooftops to help guide pilots.

She became an instructor in 1940, and when World War II broke out she went to England to assist the Royal Air Force by ferrying planes.

She later joined the WASPs --- the American flying service for women --- and when they were disbanded in 1944, she was honorably discharged with the rank of major.

Despite her illustrious career of winning races, and breaking records and barriers, she found herself at the end of the war virtually unemployable, as all of the flying jobs were being given to returning servicemen.

Despondent, the former press darling, who'd been written about by no less than Will Rogers and her friend, war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, hard a hard time adjusting to civilian life. In a New York apartment on Jan. 7, 1947, she took a lethal combination of alcohol and pills and died at the age of 36.

To learn more about Helen Richey you can pick up a copy of Glenn Kerfoot's book "Propeller Annie" at the McKeesport Regional History and Heritage Center in Renziehausen Park, or online at www.mckeesportheritage.org.

Andi Cartwright is founder of the McKeesport Memories Facebook page and a member of the board of directors at McKeesport Regional History and Heritage Center, as well as host of the "McKeesport History Minute" heard on WEDO (810) radio.