Evelyn Sharp

Infobox Person
name =Evelyn Genevieve Sharp


image_size =100px
caption =Evelyn Sharp sitting on a Vultee basic trainer plane on 7 March 1943
birth_date =1 October 1919
birth_place =Melstone, Montana
death_date =3 April 1944
death_place =Near Middleton, Pennsylvania
occupation =Aviator
spouse =
parents =John and Mary Sharp
children =

Evelyn Genevieve "Sharpie" Sharp (1919 - 1944) was an American aviatrix.

Early life

Born Lois Genevie Crouse on October 1, 1919 in Melstone, Montana, she was adopted by John and Mary Sharp two months later. Her family later moved to Ord, Nebraska where she learned to fly at age fourteen and later soloed at sixteen. Two years later at eighteen, she received her commercial pilot's license and acquired her first airplane with the help of local businessmen. Sharp repaid them with the money earned from barnstorming.

Evelyn later became an airplane instructor at age 20, over 350 men learned to fly in her plane. She also became the first American female airmail pilot.

World War II

Sharp was one of the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) pilots with over 3,000 flight hours logged when she joined. By then transferred into the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), Evelyn Sharp was killed on April 3, 1944, near Middleton, Pennsylvania, in the crash of a P-38 Lightning. She was twenty-four years old.

Legacy

At the time of her death she was a squadron commander, only three flights from her fifth rating, the highest certificate then available to women. She is buried in Ord, Nebraska. There is a public airfield named after her, [http://www.globalair.com/airport/airport.aspx?aptcode=ODX Evelyn Field Airport (KODX)] in Ord, Nebraska.
*In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.

See also

*Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
*United States Army Air Forces

References

* [http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/sharp.html Collection of articles about Evelyn Sharp]
* [http://www.twu.edu/wasp/SharpE.pdf Texas Women's University profile of Evelyn Sharp]
* [http://www.aero.state.ne.us/hofmenu.htm Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame]

External links

* [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1560 National Museum of the USAF biography of Evelyn Sharp]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12467 findagrave.com of Evelyn Sharp]
* [http://www.ninety-nines.org/sharpie.html The Ninety-Nines Sharpie: The Life Story of Evelyn Sharp - Nebraska's Aviatrix]
* [http://wwii-women-pilots.org/WASP_KIA/38KIA.html Short biography of Evelyn Sharp along with the other 38 women who died, serving as WASP pilots during World War II]